


Fated To Pretend or The Weekend Jensen Was Jared’s Girlfriend

by xkatjafx



Category: CW Network RPF, RPS, Supernatural RPF
Genre: Crack, Crossdressing, Dancing, First Time, Gay Chicken, Humor, J2, M/M, Romantic Comedy, Schmoop, pretending to be a couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-13
Updated: 2009-11-13
Packaged: 2017-10-02 14:12:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xkatjafx/pseuds/xkatjafx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to extraordinary circumstances Jensen offers to spend a weekend pretending to be Jared's girlfriend. Jared soon realizes that he got a lot more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fated To Pretend or The Weekend Jensen Was Jared’s Girlfriend

**Author's Note:**

> **Spoilers:** None whatsoever for SPN.  
> **Disclaimer:** All lies. The last time I checked nothing like this ever happened.  
> **Betas:** astri13, mareen, lovis, tmz_cori, gwendolen and last but not least miss_cinnamon.  
> **Feedback:** Any kind of squee is certainly welcome. Feel also free to tell me what you didn't like and point out spelling and grammar mistakes.  
> **Author's Notes:** This story is kind of the inverted version of "undercover in a gay bar". Before you read it, you should know a few things:  
> 1) The story takes place in early fall of 2008 a.k.a. during Season 4. Meaning, Jared and Sandy have already broken up.  
> 2) Jensen is single again.  
> 3) Jared and Jensen do not live together. (When I started this story, that idea was still utterly unrealistic *g*)  
> 4) People often see what they want to see ; )
> 
> \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
> Feel free to translate, remix and make podfic of this story. I will feel extremely honored. Just let me know where you post it, so I can link to it.
> 
> **(Latin American) Spanish translation:** [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/870828) (complete)  
> **Chinese translation:** [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/854251) (still a work in progress). Includes new artwork!  
> \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 
> [version 1.06]

**Fated To Pretend  
** or  
The Weekend Jensen Was Jared's Girlfriend  
by xkatjafx

  


[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/xkatjafx/pic/0003b82x/g5)

  


**SATURDAY, one month ago**

"I can't. I wish I could, but I really really can't." Jared stumbled out of the taxi, turning around to watch Jensen climbing out behind him. "It's my turn to rent the place and organize everything. If I don't go, the whole thing pretty much falls apart - and that would totally be unfair to the others. It's not their fault Sandy and I broke up." Jared sighed, emptying his pockets in search for his keys while walking up to the house.

"Yeah, but it's obviously their fault you dread going there alone… What's so bad about it anyway?" They stopped in front of the door while Jared still aimlessly stuck his hands in his pockets. He inwardly cursed his inability to remember where he had put the damn thing. Maybe he shouldn't have drunk the last two beers after all.

"By the way, you might wanna try the inside pocket of your jacket, Jay." Jensen pointed out, pulling playfully at the pocket in question.

Jared frowned, fishing out the missing keys. "How come you always…" he trailed off, figuring the whole situation was embarrassing enough, especially since it wasn't the first time Jensen had known where his stuff was better than he did. He stuck the key into the lock, pushed the door open and they finally both slipped inside - to be enthusiastically greeted by Harley and Sadie jumping up and down.

Jared scratched Sadie behind the ears to calm her down, while watching Harley being petted by Jensen. "Going to our annual meet-up alone is like spending a weekend in hell. You have no idea, man. I made that mistake three years ago and the girls were constantly trying to talk to me about me missing out and planning dates with all of their single friends."

They moved on to the living room, where Jensen let himself sink into the big couch, both dogs settling at his feet. "That doesn't sound _that_ bad…" He watched Jared's back disappearing into the kitchen.

"You weren't there!" Jared shouted from the other room while raiding the fridge. Five seconds later he was back, handing Jensen a beer - the sixth, seventh? - then flopped down next to his best friend. He kicked off his shoes, maybe a little too far, watching Harley chasing them. Oops.

"Somewhere along the second day Alex and Joe jumped in, setting me up with anything that moved on two legs. Wait! That's not true! There was this girl in that club, who Alex dragged out of a hole somewhere. She was so drunk she was way beyond moving on two legs."

Flipping the beer cap off with his ring, Jensen chuckled.

"It's not funny, man. Basically the one and only thing they discussed the whole weekend was my love life. They created profiles on dating sites for me. I was actually forced to change my email address," he whined.

"Can't have been worse than the fan mail?" Jensen said with a smirk, sipping his beer.

"I don't know about _your_ fan mail, but at least mine does not contain pictures of men in heavy BDSM gear."

Jensen almost choked on his beer, but managed to howl with laughter anyway.

"Apparently Alex got somewhat 'creative' with the sexual preferences."

"With friends like that who needs enemies?" Jensen snorted, pointedly holding up his beer bottle.

"Exactly." Jared let his beer bottle click against Jensen's then took another mouthful. "I can't think of a better way to spend my vacation time," he added sarcastically.

"So why are you going?"

"Because they're my friends? We've known each other since high school and I only ever see them once a year. Aside from all the bad jokes and the nagging I actually enjoy spending time with them. I just don't want a repeat performance of _that_ year," he sighed.

"Dude, if you hate it that much, I could throw on a dress and be your girlfriend for the weekend," Jensen joked.

An answering smirk crossed Jared's lips. "Oh, you would? You would give up your only free week in three months for me? That's so _nice_ of you." He put his hand right across his heart. "It really means a lot to me," he mock-sighed. "You know I totally can't take you up on this without giving you something in return… You know, do this and you can have the co-signed Spurs/Mavericks jersey you've always wanted," he joked, pointing at the item in question on the wall behind the couch.

Jensen turned his head, looking up and his face went completely blank for a second or two. Then he slowly tilted his head to the side, lifting one corner of his mouth in a typical Dean-like smirk. "Okay then. Let's shake on it." His voice sounded entirely solemn.

Jared simply stared at the offered hand with a befuddled expression. What the hell, Jensen was just kidding, right?

He grasped Jensen's hand, giving it a long hard shake.

Little did he know about the things he had just set in motion.

++  


**MONDAY evening, the week before**

Jared was just about to sit down in front of his TV to watch the game and eat some pizza fresh from the oven, when the doorbell rang.

He opened the door and stared at the girl standing in front of him. Long blond hair was flowing over her shoulders, creating a striking contrast to the turquoise dress that fell loosely down her lean but athletic body.

"Hi," she said, tilting her head slightly as if she was waiting for a reaction.

He let his eyes wander, taking in the white high heels, the matching white handbag and scarf, and the full pink lips. Yeah she was pretty, but he couldn't place her, nor could he remember anyone mentioning that he was about to have a visitor. "Can I help you with something?"

"You could let me in?" She fidgeted slightly, avoiding eye contact, instead looking nervously down at her shoes.

Jared wondered if he was missing something. Did he know this girl? Someone from the set? A fangirl? Where the hell did she get his address? He gave her another once over. At least she didn't look like a crazy stalker, even though she was acting a bit antsy. She was fiddling with the strap of her purse, but once she noticed Jared watching, she dropped it like hot coals. Something about her seemed slightly familiar - he just couldn't figure out what exactly it was.

"Excuse me, this might sound stupid, but do I know you?" He gave her his best puppy dog smile - just in case he was about to commit a faux pas.

Suddenly her whole posture changed and those pink lips formed a smirk that looked all too familiar…

"Don't you recognize your own girlfriend, Jared?" The voice dropping to a very male drawl in the middle of the sentence.

Jared stared, blinked, stared again and started laughing. "Shit, man! You didn't!"

Jensen just grinned. "We had a deal, remember?"

"Honestly, I didn't think you were serious about this," Jared shook his head disbelievingly. "Anyway… Get in."

He ushered Jensen into the living room. Once there he asked Jensen to spin around, to which Jensen complied with a smirk, adding a girly curtsy at the end.

"I still can't believe it."

If he was honest, he was completely flabbergasted about Jensen turning up dressed as a girl. Seriously, who did that? And the more interesting question: What did that say about Jensen? He shook his head, staring at him. "You look completely different."

"That's kind of the point, Jay. So, you're okay with this look? Good enough for your girlfriend?"

Jared laughed. Jensen seemed to be pretty cool with the whole thing. "Do you want me to tell you that you're pretty? No, the dress doesn't make you look fat, Jen."

Jensen shook his head in amusement. "Hey, I just thought maybe you'd prefer a different hair color. Or perhaps you'd like bigger breasts?" he added mischievously while fondling the things in question.

"I don't know. Can I touch them?"

Jensen frowned. "What is this? No date, no flowers, no chocolates - just straight to second base, Jay? Is this the way you handle all your girls?"

Jared snorted. "I see, you'll be one of those high maintenance girlfriends." He took a deep breath. "Joking aside. Do you really want to go through with this, Jensen?"

"You promised me the jersey, man. Don't chicken out now, after everything I went through to get this stuff."

"This is crazy even for us, dude." Jared pointed out with a sigh, dropping down on the couch.

"Probably even more for me than for you," Jensen said with a grin and carefully lowered himself on the other end of the sofa. Obviously the high heels and dress thing was still something for him to get used to. "The interesting question is, do you think your friends will recognize me? Or let me rephrase that: Do they know the show?"

Jared thought about it for a moment. "As far as I know Alex saw the pilot and Joe and Theresa checked out one or two episodes, but none of them watched it regularly - at least that's how it was last year. Considering none of them are any real fans of horror shows, I would dare say this probably hasn't changed."

"It's your call, dude." Jensen shrugged and grabbed a slice of Jared's pizza that was still resting on the coffee table.

"And that's _my_ pizza."

"If I remember correctly you ate all _my_ gummi worms yesterday."

Jared conceded the point with a grin and took a sip of his beer. "So you really want to go through with this?"

"You didn't recognize me, did you?"

"No, but it will be three whole days, man. Are you sure, you're… we're up to this?"

"Just think of it as one big 72 hours improv play." Jensen winked. "It will be this great experience you can tell all your grandkids about one day."

Jared frowned.

"Okay, maybe not," Jensen said. "Look, why shouldn't it work? _You_ didn't even recognize me."

"And with me next to you, you'll pretty much seem small and frail anyway?" Jared punched Jensen's arm. "I mean, look at all those muscles I put on during the last three seasons." He wiggled his eyebrows and flexed his biceps to prove it.

"Yeah, yeah, we all know you're a _beast_, Padalecki." Jensen rolled his eyes. "So, we're doing this?"

"God, if this all goes to hell, just remember _you_," he pointed at Jensen, "wanted this. I hope the jersey is worth it."

Jensen just smiled all too innocently and twirled a lock of the long blond hair around his finger.

Jared was once more taken aback by how different Jensen looked. How easily the make-up transformed his face into something female. Not that Jared hadn't noticed before that Jensen was kind of handsome - in fact it was hard _not_ to notice - it was just weird to realize that it obviously wasn't really a gender-specific prettiness. Now that the usual stubble adorning Jensen's face had vanished and the long hair hid his jaw, the more male features of his face were gone. As for the full lips and the big eyes - the color and the long lashes blackened by mascara accented them even more, creating a rather stunning overall picture.

Suddenly fingers were snapping in front of his face. "Hey, are you still with me here, dude?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. So, where did you get all this?" Jared pointed at the dress.

"Do you remember last weekend when MacKenzie was here for a short surprise visit? To be honest I asked her up here."

"So you went on a shopping spree with your sister? Dude, weren't you afraid someone would recognize you? I can just see the headline:" Jared drew a line into the air. "Jensen Ackles wears women's underwear."

Jensen settled back, laughing. "I didn't exactly _have_ to go shopping. Two years ago there was this Halloween party… And that was when we figured out that I can actually wear a lot of Mac's clothes."

"Wait. You went to a Halloween party dressed as a girl?"

"Not exactly, I went as a girl who was dressed as a witch. The funny thing was nobody ever recognized me. Mac introduced me as her cousin and from there on I was totally unbothered by the usual hordes of girls. Except for the one time where I had to answer all these questions about my cousin Jensen. Awkward, man."

"You were a … witch," Jared raised his eyebrows.

"A pretty witch."

Jared raised his eyebrows even higher.

"I lost a bet, man," Jensen sighed.

"You lost to Batman?"

"Oh, shut up!"

"So about that Halloween Party… Did you score some hot lesbian action?"

"Dude, gentlemen don't kiss and tell."

"Aww, come on." Jared put his puppy dog look to good use. "Who can you share those things with if not your best friend Jay?"

"And what makes you so sure I scored with a _girl_?" Jensen deadpanned.

Jared felt his jaw drop. So maybe the whole 'pretend to be your girlfriend' thing was just a way to ease Jared into the fact that Jensen also liked boys?

Jensen looked at him, snorted, then downright laughed out loud. "Your face! Why do I never have a camera when I _really_ need one?"

"Asshat," Jared grumbled. Being slightly pissed at himself that he had actually fallen for that - a boy could wish after all. He grabbed his slice of pizza and bit maybe a little too forcefully into it. "So what about the rest of your get-up? Where did you score that?" He asked with a full mouth and gestured vaguely in the direction of Jen's rack. If Jensen noticed the change of topic, he didn't let it on.

"I borrowed the falsies from our costume department and the wig from Jeannie. She said it wouldn't be missed - as long as I get it back afterwards. Remind me to get her something nice when we're back. She was really helpful with choosing the right stuff. Even though she wouldn't let me be a redhead."

Jared nodded, but felt his smile slipping once he thought about what exactly Jensen might had told her. "Does she know?" he asked worriedly.

"Relax, man. I told her I had to attend a costume party. She also got Shannon to come over who was nice enough to show me how to drown my face in paint. I guess, by the time this weekend is over I'll be good enough to do my own make-up for the show, too."

Jared smiled mischievously. "Is the genderswap episode finally coming?"

"Yeah, didn't you read the script? Sammy will totally get pregnant."

Jared snorted. "Yeah, and Dean will stay in the bathroom the whole episode fondling his boobs."

"What can I say? Dean always knows how to find the bright side of things." Jensen snatched another piece of pizza, grinning widely.

"Hey, what about a name? Can I give you a name?"

Jensen chewed, rolling his eyes. "So you can come up with something hideous like Britney or Candy? I think not."

"Candy? I could really go for Candy," Jared pointed out excitedly.

"All the time. I know, man," Jensen said sarcastically. "And you wouldn't even have to lie if you said you love-," Jensen held his hands up to air-quote. "Candy."

Jared chuckled. "Don't forget all the 'Climbing Candy Mountain' jokes."

Burying his face in his hands, Jensen whined: "You. Did. _Not_. Just say that."

"So Candy it is then?"

"No fucking way are you calling me Candy, dude! Let's go for the obvious choice: 'Jennifer' - and you will simply call me 'Jen'. That way it's even less likely you accidentally say the wrong name."

"Can I call you Jenny then?" Jared wiggled his eyebrows. "Can I? Can I? Can I? Pleaaaase?"

"Only if you want to explain to your friends why I don't answer to it," Jensen said dryly.

Jared stuck out his tongue. "Okay, 'Jen' then. What about a last name?"

"I don't know." Jensen shrugged and grabbed Jared's beer to take a mouthful.

"Maybe we should simply pick something inconspicuous. Smith, Brown, Woods, whatever."

"In that case I take 'Whatever'," Jensen deadpanned.

Jared shook his head and snatched his beer out of Jensen's hands. How the fuck was he always getting himself into these things?

++  


**FRIDAY**

They met up early in the morning, so that they would reach the cabin before everyone else. Jared was just about to scribble some notes for the dogsitter when Jensen arrived in 'full gear', wearing the same turquoise dress as the first time. This of course led Jared to joke around about the fact that Jensen obviously couldn't wait to become a girl - though he shut up about it once Jensen pointed out that there might not be enough time for him to pretty up later.

They loaded Jensen's suitcase and make-up bag into Jared's car and drove off to the speakers blaring 'Dude looks like a lady." Jared just hadn't been able to resist.

+++

Jared stared out front at the road, directing the car along the endless serpentine vanishing between green mountainsides. From time to time he shot a quick glance at Jensen on the passenger seat, wondering if the blond locked disguise was going to fool his friends. It was pretty good, but still - what if somebody figured it out? Or found out by accident? He wasn't sure he could laugh the whole thing off when it came down to that. He trusted his friends not to blab, but he certainly would never ever live down passing Jensen off as his girlfriend.

"You want to stop the whole thing?" Jensen asked quietly.

Sometimes Jared wondered if his best friend had telepathic abilities. It certainly would explain part of his impressive improvisation skills.

"You know, you could just drop me off at the next outpost of civilization. I'll rent a car and drive home. No harm done, Jay."

Jared turned his head. "Now that you went through all this just to do me a favor? Shaving your legs and all?" he said, adding a slight smirk. The idea of Jensen prettying himself up, was still really hilarious.

"The hair will grow back - or so I've heard. Look, this probably was a shitty idea anyway. I'm not mad if you want to blow it off. At least, I won't have to walk around in these instruments of torture all day." He pointed at the white stiletto heels adorning his bare feet.

"You could have simply gone for something flat. Like ballerinas. Or flip-flops."

"Yeah, but that would have undermined the awesomeness of these legs," Jensen said with a wink.

Jared shot a look at the legs in question. It would probably have been a shame indeed. "Yeah Jen, you should not deprive the world of the bow legs extraordinaire," he grinned, poking Jensen friendly in the arm.

"You're an ass, you know?" Jensen huffed with a smile on his face.

"Last time I checked I was your boyfriend, which kinda proves you like ass." Jared wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. He watched Jensen cracking up and laughed along with him. If he was honest with himself, he was looking forward to spending the weekend with Jensen, impending doom or not.

"So, is there anything I should know about your friends? It's Alex, Theresa and Ron, right?"

"Alex is working for a big investment firm, I think he makes more money than both of us do together. No clue to whom he's bringing this weekend though, since there's always a different girl. Usually they're young, pretty and fairly stupid."

Jensen snickered.

"Last year he even brought two at once. He's not exactly the monogamous type."

"Sounds like he's related to Chad," Jensen remarked dryly.

Jared snorted. "Yeah, they could be long lost cousins or something." He set the turn signal and took the road on the left, leading further up the mountain.

"Theresa will bring her husband Joe. They've been married for 5 years. She was studying to be a lawyer until she met Joe and they settled down. He's an engineer, by the way. You'll like them. They're the perfect little family, two incredibly cute girls included."

"There will be kids?" Jensen asked, surprise coloring his voice.

"No, no. They usually stay with their grandparents for the weekend."

"And Ron?"

"He's working for UPS, some bureau job. He's extremely quiet, so don't be mad if it takes a while until he talks to you. Elle, his girlfriend - that's short for Elaine by the way, but don't call her that - is the exact opposite: loud, sometimes obnoxious. I've never really understood what they found in each other, since they're so different, but apparently it's love. They met three years ago and have been together ever since. Anyway, Elle can sometimes be a bit too curious for her own good, so you should watch what you're telling her. And don't let yourself be rattled by Alex… But otherwise just play it by ear. They're a fun bunch to be around."

Jensen raised an eyebrow: "All your whining last month gave quite a different impression. Something more along the lines of hell spawn," he joked.

Jared laughed. "Let's say I was little desperate at that time. But that's why I dragged your ass along, so I won't have to cry myself to sleep." He turned his head, grinning at Jensen. "By the way, can you get me the water from the back, please?"

Jensen turned around and grabbed a bottle from the backseat. Sitting back down, he looked irritatingly down at the water, smacking his lips. "I really don't know how girls can stand this," Jensen murmured.

"Drinking water?" Jared asked irritated.

"No, their hair sticking to their lipstick all the time," Jensen grimaced, wiping some strands away from this face. "It's fucking annoying." He opened the bottle and held the water out for Jared.

"Maybe you can have a hair braiding session with the other girls later," Jared joked.

"Yeah, you know, maybe you should come too," Jensen said dryly. "Considering the last time your pigtails looked kinda wonky."

+++

After little more than two hours they arrived at their destination, where the caretaker was already waiting for them. The cabin itself was hidden away in some idyllic little valley, nestled up to a grassy mountain side, the forest only starting half a mile away above their accommodation.

When Jensen stepped out of the car, his body language completely changed. His movements became more deliberate and his facial expression was a bit softer and warmer. Of course, Jared had had ample opportunity to observe Jensen getting into character, but it still was fascinating to watch every single time. And this was even more interesting than the Dean transformation, since Jared didn't really know what was to follow.

They did a short introduction - and to Jared's relief Mr. Oliver greeted 'his girlfriend' with a short polite handshake, never giving any indication that something was wrong. Then they got the quick tour through the cabin which turned out to actually be more of a country house: There were four bedrooms with adjoining baths on two floors, a huge living room dominated by an U-shaped couch and a large flat-screen, a spacious kitchen that included a dining area and a small gym. There even was a gigantic hot tub in the backyard.

Jared was relieved to see that the first real test of Jensen's disguise seemed to go smoothly. Admittedly, Jensen hadn't talked much, but he had interacted with the caretaker somewhat and all the reactions he had gained were perfectly normal.

Afterwards Jared quickly inspected the food he had ordered then the caretaker handed over the keys and gave them some last instructions about the heater, dishwasher and the hot tub. Soon enough him and Jensen were alone once more.

They decided to use the time until the others arrived to unpack, so they went back out to the car to get their stuff. Jensen tried to convince Jared to carry his suitcase as well, emphasizing his girlfriend status, but Jared just ignored him and his adamant pouting. Once he noticed though that Jensen had indeed problems handling high heels, rough ground and the additional weight of his suitcase, he snatched it out of Jensen's hand and brought it inside.

Seeing Jensen grinning widely he sighed. "Just don't get used to it, dude."

They decided on the first floor bedroom, because it was the only one on that floor and therefore provided a little more privacy than the others. The room itself contained a big closet, a king-sized bed, and a table with two chairs placed underneath the opposing window that offered a beautiful view into the valley.

In full discovery mode, Jared scurried through the room, opening the closet, looking out the window and exploring the bathroom, where he found a shower, toilet and a basin. It's wasn't very big, but it would do. He turned around, watching Jensen sit down on the bed and test-bouncing it a bit.

"I hope it's okay that we share the room, Jen?"

"Really? We have to… _share_?" Jensen remarked, faking surprise, then shook his head in amusement. "How would you have explained _not_ sharing a room?"

Jared shrugged. "Ebola? SARS maybe?" he joked. "You saving yourself for marriage?"

"I'm sorry to say I left the nun costume at home."

"As long as you packed the schoolgirl outfit, everything should be fine," Jared winked.

+++

Jared was hanging some of his clothes into his side of the closet, when he heard a car arrive.

Jensen came out of the bathroom, looking a bit nervous. "Showtime?"

"Looks like it."

Jared walked through the corridor in the direction of the front door, Jensen on his heels. Once they stepped out, Jensen's behavior instantly switched again. His walk suddenly became more girly: Smaller steps, placing one foot in front of the other, adding a slight sway to his hips. It was strangely fascinating to watch.

The loud bang of a car door brought Jared back to reality. Ron and Elaine had arrived together with Joe and Theresa, sharing a rental car.

All four exchanged a round of hugs with Jared - and to his relief with Jensen as well, excitedly greeting his new 'girlfriend'. Except for Ron, who only shook Jensen's hand, but that was Ron for you: He always took some time to warm up to new people.

Jared cringed a bit when he noticed that Jensen stood out by sheer height. Due to the high heels he even had a few inches on Joe, who really wasn't a small man. Just then Theresa poked Jared into the ribs and teased him about finally getting a girlfriend in his size and Jared waited for her to continue, to smash the whole charade to smithereens before it even really started, but the only reaction was laughter all around - and a short relieved look from Jensen.

"Jared, it's absolutely beautiful here. I'm so glad you insisted we meet up in Canada this year," Theresa said excitedly, glancing around and taking in the scenery.

Joe smiled and pulled her close. "She was producing a constant string of 'Aahhs' and 'Oohs' on the way up here. I had to restrain her from jumping out of the car and running off into the wilderness," he said fondly and kissed the top of her head, while Theresa gave him a friendly elbow jab.

"Ron, will you get the bags?" Elaine called over to her boyfriend, who was already unpacking the trunk and setting down the bags next to the SUV. She didn't even wait for confirmation before she marched off into the direction of the door. Once there, she turned around, pointing at Jared. "Jay, will you show us the house?"

Jared snorted. "Just give them a minute. It's not running away, you know?"

After Ron and Joe had brought the suitcases inside, Jared gave his friends a short tour through the house. Jensen stayed mostly in the back and observed. As did Ron, but even he couldn't suppress his joy when Jared stepped close to one of the windows on the second floor, pointing at the hot tub.

Afterwards Jared and Jensen excused themselves, mentioning that they would wait downstairs to give the rest of them some time to unpack in their chosen bedrooms. Jared led the way into the kitchen, where he opened the fridge and got himself something to drink.

"That went... okay so far?" Jensen remarked.

"Yeah. Let's hope Alex goes just as smoothly," he handed over a glass of Mountain Dew. "Thanks again. Couldn't have done this without you."

"Mmm, indeed it might have been a bit weird if you had played yourself and your girlfriend, dude. But you're welcome," Jensen grinned and took a sip from his glass.

+++

Later that afternoon Alex arrived in his shiny silver Mercedes convertible, complaining about the remote location, the cold weather and the traffic jam he had endure at the border - all before he even had said hello to the people coming out to greet him. In the end, Jared just ignored the ongoing tirade and hugged him until he shut up.

The one thing that almost made Jared want to bash his head against the nearest cabin wall was the fact that Alex of all people had arrived alone! Something that Jensen acknowledged silently with a raised eyebrow and Jared was only able to answer with a small apologetic shrug. Sometimes life just wasn't fucking fair.

Once Alex had wiggled out of Jared's embrace he turned to Jensen. "Hi, I'm Alex, and you must be?"

Jensen smiled politely, holding out a hand. "Jennifer. Nice to meet you, Alex."

Jared watched with barely hidden amusement how Alex grabbed Jensen's hand and pulled him close with a quick tug, making Jensen almost stumble into his arms. Jensen looked kind of panicked over Alex' shoulder at Jared, obviously not that fond of prolonged close contact. The whole thing looked even more ridiculous since Jensen in high heels was at least four inches taller than Alex.

Jared let it continue for another second then cleared his throat loudly. Once Alex let go, he turned to Jared with a wide grin on his face and clapped him enthusiastically on the shoulder: "Jay, how come you always get the prettiest girls?"

Watching Jensen right next to him, how he looked down at the ground, trying to hide the blush creeping up his cheeks, Jared couldn't help but joke: "What can I say? Girls like it bigger." He stepped up to Jensen, embracing him with one arm and gave him a friendly hug. "Right, Jen?"

Jensen snorted, but said nothing. Meanwhile Alex moved on to hug and kiss Theresa, who shoved him off with a smile, mentioning that she _still_ was married. Which Alex countered with the reminder that should she ever change her mind, she could always come to him.

When they all walked back into the house, Jared pulled Jensen aside and asked him outright if he wanted to drive home. Now that Alex had come on his own their whole deal had become kind of redundant. Jared would make up some kind of excuse for Jensen, and everything would be fine. But Jensen only shook his head, whispering "Where's the fun in that?" and pulled Jared along, following the others into the living room.

+++

Later that night, after they had finished their meal, they stayed at the long kitchen table, drinking some beer and wine, while catching up.

Theresa and Joe talked about Susie's first day in kindergarten and how she didn't want to be left alone there and had clung to Joe's leg for about 10 minutes, until he had finally managed to bribe her into staying with a promise to go to the zoo at the weekend.

Jared talked about the birth of his niece, how his brother had conned him into changing her diapers and how he'd almost got peed on. Elaine mentioned she and Ron were thinking of getting a puppy, which brought Jared to Sadie and Harley and their latest escapades - mentioning the time they had stolen one of 'Jen's' shoes and had chewed it almost to pieces. Jensen chimed in, gloating how Jared had to make it up to 'her', first driving her home with only one shoe, and how they then had been shoe hunting for about an hour until they found the same pair. And how the next time 'she' had visited, Jared had already bought a bigger shoe cabinet, so 'Jen' could put 'her' shoes away safely.

Jared had probably as much fun listening to Jensen as the rest of them. Of course he knew the story, he had been there after all. The fun thing was watching the slightly different mannerisms Jensen used to underline it - which were a bit smaller, more tentative, more thoughtful than normal. He even held his wine glass differently. Jensen also looked at Jared more often than usual, as if checking for Jared's approval - or maybe it was part of the girlfriend act - though the really lovey-dovey smiles and looks were usually followed by a glint of amusement in Jensen's eyes.

After some prodding by Elaine Alex finally admitted that his latest conquest had just left him the night before over some stupid argument about spending Thanksgiving with her parents, and that's why he had arrived alone this time.

"Speaking of ex-girlfriends, how is Sandy? Your break-up came as a bit of a surprise, especially _after_ you announced your engagement." Elaine looked curiously at Jared.

Jared sighed. "Sandy's doing fine. I just talked to her last week, seems like she's about to sign a contract for a whole series of commercials. As for the break-up..." Jared hesitated, took a deep breath and continued. "I guess the engagement made us realize that we had different expectations for our future which in the end just didn't fit. Sometimes it doesn't work out even if both parties want it to. But you know, as much as I regret the break-up, I'm glad we figured it out before we took the final step as it could have gotten ugly. This way we're still friends. And we can both move on without any grudges."

"I'm glad you did. I have to admit I was a bit worried after your call - but it seems to have worked out fine." Theresa said with a fond smile, nodding in Jensen's direction.

Alex took a mouthful of his beer and grinned. "Considering how much you talked about him last year, Jay, I was sure you would bring your co-star this time. Jensen? Was that his name?"

Jensen promptly choked on the wine he was sipping.

"Very funny, Alex." Jared rubbed Jensen's back apologetically until his breathing normalized.

"So how long have you two been together?" Elaine asked curiously while reaching for her wine glass.

Jared froze for half a second. Shit! They had totally forgotten to make up a good cover story. "We met while I was walking the dogs…" he stopped mid-sentence, because Jensen had unfortunately started to improvise as well.

"…stumbled over this guy at the set party."

Damn. A bunch of amused eyes stared back at both of them.

Jensen laughed. "We must sound like some nervous over-eager couple applying for a green card." He was met with snickers all around. Even from Jared, who had to admit that it wasn't that far from the truth.

"Okay, let's start at the beginning. I met Jared on set while he was walking his dogs…"

"And you totally thought I was the dogsitter!"

"Did not!"

"Did too. You got all big-eyed when I told you my name," Jared grinned.

"Maybe I was a little preoccupied with the dogs. It was my first day on set, I didn't really think I would stumble over one of the stars while I was looking for a bathroom."

"Hey, you stumbled over Sadie, not _me_."

"It's kinda hard to stumble over you, sasquatch."

"Anyway, it was the birthday of one of our crew guys, and there was this party later-"

"Which was where you stumbled over _me_," Jensen threw in with a grin.

Jared marveled at the easiness of all this, as usual it was like a game of ping pong. Once they got going, things just took on a life of their own. "Yeah, well, you're kinda tiny." Jared winked. "And once I recognized you from before I stopped and we talked a bit. And then we pretty much hit it off instantly." He looked at Elaine, continuing: "As it turned out we both like to eat good food, have a good beer, hang out and have a good time. We both have similar interests in sports and we're both from Texas, so we're both laid back. It just… fits," he couldn't resist patting Jensen's hand jokingly.

"The funny thing is, it helps me, having him around, because his accent kind of keeps mine going, and mine kind of keeps his going," Jensen slightly drawled while slowly pulling his hand out of Jared's grasp.

"And the second she tried to steal my Gummi Bears, I knew this had to be love." Jared tried to look extra-sappy when he reached out and caressed Jensen's cheek.

Jensen cringed shortly, though probably unnoticeably to the others, since he overplayed with a big smile.

Jared couldn't stop grinning at him knowingly. Admittedly he soon contemplated if it had been a good idea to tease Jensen like that, noticing Jensen was getting _that_ glint in his eyes.

He promptly got his answer when Alex went on and on about his vacation in the Caribbean. How he and his girl of the week had been alone on that endless white beach surrounded by nothing but palm trees and endless clear blue water. Jensen totally faked an adorable cute little laugh, moved closer to Jared and fiddled with his shirt, while telling him, that they really should be doing something similar for their next vacation.

Of course it didn't take Jared long to start his revenge by moving his arm behind Jensen and pulling him closer into an one armed hug, letting his hand fondle Jensen's arm, trailing up and down a lot. Which was fine and dandy until Jensen told the story about how 'she' tried to teach Jared golf, buying the biggest box of balls one could possibly find and how Jared still ended up losing every single one of them - because obviously Jensen found it amusing to emphasis every sentence by touching Jared. So he was hugged and petted, and in the end, Jensen's hand found his way into Jared's hair and fucking stayed there, slowly caressing his nape.

Since there weren't any indications that Jensen was about to stop any time soon - the slightly sadistic smirk grazing his mouth making that a vain hope - Jared decided in a flash of genius (or desperation) to let his other hand drop beneath the table on Jensen's knee.

Promptly Jensen froze for about a second, but then continued to stubbornly massage the back of Jared's skull as if nothing happened.

Apparently Jensen hadn't exactly gotten the message, so Jared slowly let his fingers draw Jensen's skirt upwards, his eyes on Jensen, who still pretended to raptly listen to Ron's story about the latest idiocies of his boss, an utter control freak. About two inches away from Jared's final destination, Jensen suddenly caved, his hand dropping out of Jared's hair, grabbing the offending hand instead and putting it back on the table.

Jared smirked, already inwardly celebrating his victory, because surely Jensen wouldn't be able to top that.

He relaxed, leaning back into his chair and joined the conversation once more when he noticed in between laughs that Jensen was still holding on to his hand. Soon, Jensen's other hand joined the first and then they slowly moved along Jared's long fingers with the slightest touch.

Jared just ignored the whole thing. He was giving Ron and Elaine a bunch of tips about choosing the right puppy, when he looked down on his hand by accident and discovered that Jensen's light touching had transformed into a rather suggestive play.

That second Jensen turned his head, looked up at Jared through his thick black lashes, all innocent smile, and then slowly wetted his fucking lips.

Jared jerked his hand away as if bitten, mumbled something about the bathroom and hurried out of the kitchen as fast as he could. After all, there was only so much he could take. Obviously it was better to let Jensen win before the whole thing spun completely out of control.

When Jared finally came back, having tried to calm down as much as it was possible in two minutes, Jensen greeted him with a short knowing smirk but made no more motions to get back into the game - something about which Jared was incredibly thankful. Jensen still touched him from time to time, but it was just the usual kind of stuff between them: A slap on the back here, a pat on the shoulder there to emphasize a joke. The sexual innuendo was gone.

The evening progressed with more conversation, banter and drinking - all of them having a good time. Jared mostly relaxed and watched Jensen interact with his old friends. Still, he sometimes stumbled over Jensen's changed look and caught himself staring from time to time. But he couldn't help letting his eyes wander over Jensen's face, taking in the artful mix of eye shadow and eyeliner, and the blackened lashes accentuating his green eyes. Jensen's freckles unfortunately had almost completely vanished under the make-up and concealer, giving him a kind of lucent, but also very fake complexion.

Jensen caught Jared's eyes on him now and then but said nothing. Jared hoped he simply interpreted it being part of the 'boyfriend thing' and Jared surely wasn't interested in telling him how much Jensen's actions had shaken him up.

By eleven o'clock Theresa decided to call it a night and the rest of them soon followed - the traveling having taken its toll on most of them.

+++

Jared quietly shut the door behind them.

"Would you lock it, please?"

Turning the key in the lock, Jared asked with a lazy smile: "What would you have done if there was no key?"

"Put a chair under the door?" Jensen's voice dropped back to his usual low, very male inflection, which really irritated Jared for about two seconds until he got used to it again. "Slept under the bed cover the whole night? Made you sleep in front of the door? Who knows? Right now, I'm just incredibly happy to get out of all this stuff, man." Jensen walked over to the king-sized bed, sat down, opened the ankle straps and kicked off the high heels. "Remind me to wear some other shoes tomorrow, these suck."

Jared sat down next to him, watching Jensen blissfully massaging his foot.

"You can have the bed, by the way," he offered quietly.

Jensen looked up, surprise written all over his face. "And where will you sleep?"

"Just give me a pillow and some blanket," he shrugged. "I've slept on the floor before."

"Dude, don't be stupid. This bed is big enough for two people - even when one of them is some oversized giant."

"We can't be all as small and delicate as you, _Jenny_." Jared winked.

Jensen flipped him the bird, his features displaying both amusement and slight annoyance. "What did I tell you about not using that name? Really, you're such a … jerk."

"Bitch!"

And then they both cracked up.

Once Jensen calmed down again, he carefully pulled the long-haired wig off his head and reached out to hang it over the back of the nearest chair.

Jared stared, taking in Jensen's changed look. The thin line of glue from the wig on his forehead, the dark mass of short squashed hair contrasting with the clip-on earrings and the dolled up face - it was a strange state of flux, of in between. The strong jaw contrasting with Jensen's cheeks, which were softly colored with some dusky pink, highlighting his cheekbones. As for the lips, Jared tried not to linger too long, the bright color combined with the wet shine of the lip gloss creating something that felt almost obscene to look at.

"What?" Jensen watched him curiously.

"It just looks... I don't know." Jared trailed off, not really wanting to talk about it.

Switching back to his girly voice, Jensen asked all big eyed: "You don't like shorthaired girls, Jared?" Then he palmed the place over his heart dramatically. "Does that mean you're breaking up with me?"

Jared laughed out loud. "You're such an idiot."

"Insults?" Jensen whined. "No wonder you and your last girlfriend didn't work out, dude."

"Asshat." He punched Jensen's arm playfully.

"And now hitting a girl? That is a new low even for you, dude." He kicked Jared lightly in the shin in retaliation.

"That's all you got, _Jenny-baby_?" Jared mocked, pulling his arm back to punch Jensen harder this time, but Jensen quickly caught his fist before it reached his shoulder, pushing the arm to the side. Jared brought up his other hand, which Jensen also intercepted - and the wrestling began.

Soon they were rolling on the bed, accompanied by heavy laughter, since neither one of them were able to really gain the upper hand. They were rolling back and forth, almost smothered by a pillow or two. Jared had almost managed to win once he decided to start a tickle attack - unfortunately that only worked until Jensen found _his_ weak spots. All the horsing around also meant lots of body contact and once Jared started thinking about that, other parts of his body started to get into the game too. Not really wanting to embarrass himself, he slowly but surely calmed down his movements, bringing their wrestling to an end - not that he had to fake it much, because he really was out of breath.

Afterwards, they both just lay on the bed, completely done with the world. Finding himself partially lying under Jensen but needing to create a little distance again, Jared tried unsuccessfully to shove him away, only being met by a tired grunt.

"I think your boob is in my face," Jared mumbled into the body pressing him down.

Jensen snorted with laughter, while rolling off of Jared. "We're already at second base? Damn it Jared! Didn't I tell you: I'm not _that_ kind of girl!"

+++

A very male Jensen came out of the bathroom wearing a loose t-shirt, shorts and his glasses. In his arms he carried his carefully folded clothes, waist cincher, bra and falsies lying on top.

Jared, wearing only a shirt and some boxer shorts, hopped up from the bed and grabbed one of the silicone breasts, weighing it in his hand. "I didn't know these things had nipples."

Jensen shrugged. "Probably makes it more real."

Grabbing the second, Jared couldn't resist holding them up to his chest, knowing it looked ridiculous. "Hey you think they look good on me?"

Jensen raised an eyebrow and said dryly: "You can wear them tomorrow if you'd like. I certainly won't mind."

"Could be a little awkward to explain, don't you think?" Jared said with a grin and put the breast forms back on the table.

"Aww, come on. We'll just tell the others that you finally found your inner girl."

Jared stuck out his tongue. "And what does that say about you?" he pointed at the pile of clothes.

"That I'm the most awesome friend you've ever had?"

"Touché," Jared conceded with a smile and went back to the bed where he slipped under the cover. Yawning, he watched Jensen walk up to the other side, pulling his part of the comforter free. Noticing Jared staring at his pearl colored fingernails, Jensen stopped to show off his hands, spreading his fingers. "I'm not doing my nails anew every morning, dude. It took long enough to paint them once. It's a lot harder than it looks."

"You did them yourself?" Jared asked surprised.

"Yeah? It's not like I could have gone to a nail studio. But hey, if I had known _you_ wanted to do them, I would have totally come around yesterday."

"_You_ wish!"

"I still have a set of toenails to offer," he grinned, putting one foot on the bed and wriggled his toes.

"Only over my dead body, man."

"C'mon, I could totally braid your hair in return," Jensen said with his all-excited girly voice.

"You will never let the pigtails thing go, will you?" Jared asked, exasperated.

"Only if you paint my toenails." Promptly a pillow impacted with Jensen's chest. He laughed, collected the pillow from the floor and slipped into bed next to Jared, putting his glasses on the nightstand. "You're so easy, man."

Jared only grunted and put the light out. They soon both drifted off to sleep, the long day taking its toll.

+++

Around 5 a.m. Jared woke up, noticing they both unknowingly had slid towards the middle of the bed and that Jensen was cuddled to his back. But since it felt kind of nice and warm, Jared closed his eyes and dropped back into dreamland, while contemplating that he really missed sharing his bed with somebody he could hug close.

+++  


**SATURDAY**

The next time Jared woke, it was already morning and the first thing he saw through blinking eyes was Jensen lying opposite him in a patch of sunlight, head resting on his arm and smiling at him.

"Hey," Jensen whispered.

"Hey," Jared whispered back. Rubbing his eyes, he asked: "Did you sleep okay?"

Jensen rubbed his eyes, frowning. "Yes, if I ignore the fact that you kind of..." he hesitated, looking up at Jared. "Dry humped my ass around six o'clock for ten minutes, everything was just... peachy."

Jared stiffened, utterly speechless. He couldn't have? Surely he would have woken up? He wouldn't-

Rolling onto his back, Jensen started snorting with laughter. "Man, you should have seen your face!"

Growling, Jared decided it was never too early for a good pillow fight - and promptly hit Jensen over the head with one.

+++

Jared had finished dressing and was now sitting on the bed waiting for Jensen, who had already warned him that his transformation would take some time. He had even suggested that Jared should simply leave and spend some time with his friends, but that didn't feel right, so here Jared was, pretty much bored out of his mind.

After yesterday's events he started wondering where this weekend would lead. Because, being suddenly confronted with a hands-on version of what could be, it was hard to ignore the possibility of something more than friendship between him and Jensen. Even though there were more than enough reasons not to go there.

If he was honest, he had to admit that he had liked Jensen ever since they met at their audition. The physical attraction from Jared's side was instant, but even more important was the fact that they just clicked without much of an effort. After the first few days it felt like they had known each other forever.

Because of work and a friendship that outshone anything he had known before - something he didn't want to risk - Jared had locked away any kind of sexual attraction deep down in a corner of his mind and thrown away the key. He allowed himself to touch Jensen, sometimes even flirt a bit, but he never ever had put any real moves on Jensen. After all, there had been Sandy and the fact that Jensen seemed to be attracted to girls only. So, over time, Jared had learned to be content with the whole 'brotherly love' thing they had going and to cherish things the way they were.

Until now. Until fate kind of forced him to act in a cruel imitation of what could be. Until they had slip-slided into that damn game of Gay Chicken and the lines that Jared had drawn long ago began to blur. And right now, Jared was entirely undecided if that was a good or a bad thing.

When Jensen finally came out of the bathroom, his face was done up and his head adorned with the long blond hair again. He wore a beige tunic dress accessorized with a broad black belt, which helped to create the illusion of female curves.

Jared let his eyes travel down Jensen's body, stopping at his feet, covered in nylon. "Do you wear stockings?" he grinned mischievously and reached out to lift Jensen's dress, but Jensen swiftly grabbed his hand.

"Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

"I don't think we covered proper behavior towards men in skirts. But hey, if you want to I can call and ask her," he smirked.

"Yeah, please do that. Your cell is on the nightstand. I'd really love to hear her opinion on this," Jensen deadpanned.

Jared grabbed his phone, wondering if Jensen's dare was worth the embarrassment. After three seconds of internal struggle, he just stuck the cell into the leather carrying case on his pants.

"Thought so," Jensen commented with a broad grin, while he slipped on a watch and then added a green necklace and a ring for each hand. Afterwards he opened his suitcase and pulled out some light brown ballerinas, adorned with some girlish glitter on the front.

"So you _do_ own ballerinas? What happened to showing off your legs, dude?"

Jensen stepped into the shoes, then looked up and stuck out his tongue. "Walk a mile in those heels and you'll know."

"I don't think they'll make them in my size. But hey, I'm not complaining. At least now you're back to your usual cute height." He patted Jensen on the head - and promptly got an elbow to his rips.

+++

After a prolonged rich breakfast, Theresa proposed a walk in the forest, so they all hurried off to get their jackets and met outside in the yard.

They took the gravel path next to the house leading up the hill and enjoyed the sun shining down on them. By the time they entered the dark humid forest, Jensen was walking up ahead with Theresa. Jared watched them from behind, hoping that Theresa didn't spill tons of embarrassing stories of their time in High School. Admittedly he hoped it was all girl-talk - it would do Jensen right to have to suffer through a long conversation about cramps and that time of the month. Though, watching Jensen's shoulders shake with laughter, Jared kind of doubted it was the latter.

Jared himself was walking alongside Joe and Alex, mostly catching up on what had happened since the last time they had seen each other: Joe talked about his two girls, Jared went on about the heavy workload of the show - trying to stay away from anything that involved Jensen - and Alex talked about how he had almost crashed his beloved Porsche just a few weeks ago.

Soon, Alex and Joe drifted off to funds and stock prices which bored Jared so much that he decided to fall back a few steps, checking up with Ron and Elle; but they seemed pretty caught up in discussing the acquisition of a new apartment, something Jared really wasn't keen on jumping in on. In the end, he fell back behind the whole group and enjoyed the scenery for a bit, deeply breathing in the humid air, the earthy smell of leaves, fir needles and the whiff of decay this time of year brought.

It didn't take long for Jensen to catch on. He was turning his head from time to time to check up on Jared, who had tried to signal that everything was okay by waving his hand - nevertheless about a minute later Jensen was walking beside him. They slowed down a bit more, creating a safe distance to the rest of the group.

"Everything okay?" Jensen inquired full of concern.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Jared joked.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Theresa just told me about the day you decided to explore Disneyland on your own when you were thirteen."

Jared laughed. "That story obviously never gets old. Did she also tell you that my parents grounded me for two weeks because I was discovering the park all alone?"

"Can you blame them? I bet they were worried sick about you." He bumped Jared's shoulder. "I mean somebody could have put you into the parade. As far as I know Disney does not yet own any sasquatches."

"Dumbass," Jared said rather fondly and kicked a small stone out of their way. He stuck his hand into his pocket, pulling out some chewing gum. "Want one?"

Jensen shook his head. "Look, is everything okay? Really okay? If you want to stop this whole thing, I will just pretend to be sick and I can leave as soon as we get back. This was meant to be fun and helpful, not something to stress you out," Jensen said worriedly.

"Jen, it's okay. Really." Jared stuck the gum into his mouth and started chewing. "Alex and Joe just went on and on and on about stock prices and the exchange market. It just didn't interest me. And I know it's hard to believe, but sometimes I enjoy a few minutes of silence." Jared shrugged.

"Oh," Jensen said with an obvious mixture of embarrassment and disappointment. "I will run and catch up with the others then. Sorry."

Before Jensen could take off, Jared grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. "Hey, if you promise not go into a long tirade about the effects of the rising oil prices, I'd rather you stay. After all you are the girl I chose to bring here." He winked.

Jensen walked closer to Jared, trailing a finger down his arm. "Sure, we could do... couple talk? You tell me how your week was, I'll tell you about the latest pair of shoes I bought," Jensen grinned.

"I was there on both accounts, remember?"

"HEYYY!" Alex shouted, waving at them from the far away bend. "WOULD YOU TWO LOVEBIRDS HURRY UP A BIT? WE'RE WAITING!"

Jared snorted and screamed back: "YOU KNOW HOW I HATE TO RUSH THINGS! JUST GIVE US FIVE MORE MINUTES!" He turned to Jensen, putting on a lewd grin. "Wanna slip into the bushes?"

Putting his hands onto his hips, Jensen asked. "Do I look like a girl who enjoys having branches up her ass?"

Jared was about to open his mouth, when Jensen interrupted him. "Oh, don't even go there." He grabbed Jared's hand and pulled him along to catch up with the rest of the group.

When they had reached the others, neither Jared nor Jensen let go of the other's hand for quite a while.

+++

After they had wandered uphill for at least half an hour the group stopped at a bend which was tangent to a big meadow, offering a beautiful view of the valley below. They decided to rest for a few minutes on a big log that lay at the border between path and pasture. Theresa once more praised the countryside, and she and Elaine reveled in the vast mountains and woods surrounding them.

Jared spread his coat over the bark, so Jensen wouldn't ruin his dress, decidedly ignoring Jensen's raised eyebrow, and then sat down next to him at the outer edge of the log. Jensen seemed to gaze out into the valley, but was clearly kind of distracted, tugging desperately at the hair on his back.

"What are you doing?" Jared asked quietly and a bit worried.

Jensen sighed. "Some hair seems to have stuck in my necklace and now it kind of pulls every time I turn my head. It drives me crazy."

"Let me get a look."

Once Jensen had turned his back to him, Jared carefully lifted the long locks away. Indeed, some of the blond hair had wound itself around the fastener. He steadied the chain with one hand, slowly pulling the strands out with the other, trying not to put too much strain on the wig itself. This turned out to be a bit tricky, so the whole operation took a lot longer than he anticipated and felt strangely intimate, seeing that he was constantly touching Jensen's neck.

"All done." He let go of the small chain, already missing the warmth of Jensen's skin, and carefully moved some of the locks of hair back where they belonged.

Jensen turned around, giving him a small but honest smile. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." And in a rush of insanity he patted Jensen's shoulder, bent forward and kissed Jensen affectionately on the head. After all, as long as the others were around everything was just an act - or so he would argue, should Jensen ever bring this up.

Right now Jensen stayed silent. Jared watched as Jensen let his head drop back and closed his eyes, obviously enjoying the sun shining on his face. And maybe it was the light in combination with the make-up, or maybe not, but Jared could have sworn that Jensen's cheeks looked a bit redder than they had before.

+++

When they came back, Ron and Theresa decided to make lunch together. Elle offered to help, while the rest of them hung around in the living room, trying to hook up Alex' Wii to the TV. Since three and a half men - Jared wasn't sure he could count Jensen fully this time - were at least three too many to solve a problem that involved technical devices, they mostly ended up arguing the pros and cons of game systems at large and TVs in particular. Unfortunately, by the time the Wii was finally successfully hooked up the lunch was ready, too.

They sat down in the kitchen and dug in, praising Theresa's and Ron's culinary skills. Afterwards, they discussed what they would do with the rest of the afternoon. Driving into town was vetoed considering their plans for the night and Theresa and Elle nixed the possibility of a major Wii tournament pretty quickly, to his and Jensen's disappointment. Not that Jensen had said anything, but it was quite obvious that Jensen's interests and the role he had to play had clashed at that moment.

"Why don't we try the hot tub?" Alex asked.

Elle agreed excitedly: "Yes, let's do that. I know Ron has been looking forward to using the thing ever since we arrived." Ron nodded in agreement.

Jared loved the idea - sitting in hot water outside in the sun, relaxing a bit. It sounded pretty good. "Yeah, I'm going to-"

Suddenly Jensen kicked him under the table, pointedly raising an eyebrow when Jared looked at him. Oh, right. Hot tub _and_ Jensen together could indeed be a problem. Damn. He probably should have thought of that sooner. Anyway, it was a bit too late to back paddle now.

"I'm going to switch the tub on then and in the meanwhile you all can go and change." Jared smiled into the round. He stood up and motioned for Jensen to follow him. They stepped out through the backdoor and entered the yard behind the house. Jared went straight to the panel which held the tub controls and opened it, trying to remember what the caretaker had said about switching it on.

"Dude, there's no way I'm going to go in there. They'll _notice_!!" Jensen hissed, obviously angry. "Go back, and tell them the damn thing doesn't work!"

"With Joe here? Are you kidding me? He'll certainly check the electronics. So if you don't want to sabotage it for real, you better come up with a different solution, dude."

Jensen rubbed his face, frowning, obviously trying to think of something.

Jared sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, I can't just magically let the thing disappear, can I? We'll just have to find a believable reason why _you_ can't go in there."

"Which would be? Allergy to water? Non-swimmer?" Jensen said, still annoyed.

"Not really, no," Jared huffed. "Maybe... You know... your period?"

Jensen stared at him blankly. "You're joking, right?"

"C'mon, it's a pretty good reason not to want to bathe with the rest of us. Or for the rest of us not to want to bathe with you," Jared added with a wink.

Jensen took a deep resigned breath. "You _so_ owe me, dude."

+++

When Jared and Jensen returned from their room, Jared having changed into his trunks, the others were already sitting in the sparkling water, enjoying the sun.

Ron was the first to notice Jensen's state of non-undress. "Aren't you joining us, Jennifer?"

Jensen shook his head. "No, sorry. Wrong time of... the month?" He ducked his head to fight the obvious onset of a blush, fiddling nervously with the hem of his dress.

Watching him, Jared suppressed the laughter bubbling up inside him, while he carefully walked down the small stairs into the pool and then sank down into the warm water, settling between Alex and Ron. Jensen stayed outside, taking part in the conversation from time to time. Nevertheless, it was obvious to Jared that he felt out of place, being the only one that had to sit on some chair aside from rest. So it wasn't really that unexpected when Jensen finally excused himself and went back into the house alone.

Jared watched him go, hoping that he would come back after a while, which unfortunately wasn't the case. Since it didn't sit right with him to ignore Jensen, especially with him being the reason that Jensen was here in the first place, he excused himself as well and climbed out of the tub. Grabbing his towel, he made his way into the house. He found Jensen in the living room sitting on the couch, jerking the Wii controller to and fro with a frustrated frown on his face. Jared instantly felt bad.

"Hey, do you mind if I join you?" Jared asked, too cheerily for his own ears.

Jensen looked up, obviously positively surprised to see Jared. "No, no. Want to play something?"

Jared nodded, relieved that Jensen didn't seem to be pissed at him.

"But maybe you want to get dressed first?" Jensen asked, his eyes lingering on Jared's bare chest.

Jared looked down at himself. "Why? It's not like you haven't all seen it before, _sweetie_?"

"Maybe I just like to have you naked beside me when I'm allowed to touch, _baby_?" Jensen mock-leered.

"Who said you can't?"

Jensen snorted and waved him off.

+++

A few minutes later Jared sat down next to Jensen, wearing his usual combination of shirt, jeans and flip-flops.

"So, what are we playing?" Jared stuck a chewing gum into his mouth then offered the package to Jensen waiting, until he had snatched one as well.

Jensen dug through Alex' box of games, which was placed next to him on the couch then held up a version of Super Mario up for Jared's approval.

"Sure. Bring it on."

They played a bit. Yet as they were both used to their PlayStation controllers which not only looked quite differently but also did not require as much motion and waving around, things didn't go that smoothly. They both fidgeted quite a lot, constantly bumping into each other. It went on to the point that Jensen started to complain about possible bruises. All in all, it was a bit annoying.

Jensen finally decided to switch games after Jared almost took out his eye with the controller - something Jared felt rather bad about, because it really hadn't been intentional on his part. Therefore he let Jensen choose the next game, which explained why they ended up with a virtual version of golf.

Funnily, Jared got the hang of that one a lot sooner than Jensen - knowing nothing about golf obviously helped a lot and led to rising levels of frustration on Jensen's part. It was fun for a while, but Jensen's expressions changed more and more from stubborn to morose until Jared reached the level where he couldn't take it anymore, so faking immense boredom, he gave Jensen his best puppy dog impression, asking for another game. Of course, Jensen didn't stand a chance.

They sifted once more through the box, until Jared triumphantly pulled out 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed'. "Hey, I think I've heard of that one. There's lightsaber fights, dude!" He excitedly looked at Jensen.

"Still compensating for not getting that Star Wars gig, Jay?"

"C'mon, it would have been incredibly cool to play a Skywalker and get your own lightsaber."

"Having seen the outcome, you have to admit the prequels sucked pretty badly." Jensen bumped his shoulder. "Be happy Hayden had to deal with all the terrible scripts instead of you."

"Yeah, maybe." He shrugged, then put on his earnest face and said: "I'm now hoping for a remake of the originals."

Jensen stared at him, disbelief written all over his face. "Sacrilege."

Jared snorted. "It's not so far out there, dude. And you could totally be the Han to my Luke."

"What, you don't want to be Han yourself?"

"_Dude_, no lightsaber?"

"But he has the Millenium Falcon!"

"And Chewie."

"Yeah, there's that." Jensen conceded. "But then I'm not sure a grammatically challenged green gnome is any better."

Jared laughed out loud while he pushed the table aside to get some more room in front of the TV.

"_And_ Han has the whole love story with Leia," Jensen pointed out.

"I always thought the real love story was between Han and Luke." Jared said with a grin.

Jensen snorted. "So that's why you want _me_ to play Han to your Luke?" He asked curiously, watching Jared closely.

"Maybe?" Jared gave Jensen a short wink then busied himself with putting the CD into the console. They let the game load and started to familiarize themselves with the controls.

Some time later, Alex joined them, obviously having had enough of being the fifth wheel in the hot tub. His mood rose noticeably when he beat not only Jensen but also Jared with his favorite red double lightsaber. To Jared's amusement, Jensen rolled his eyes behind Alex' back every five minutes, commenting on the constant showing off and Alex never ending proposals to give 'Jen' a few hands on pointers on how the game was played.

Nevertheless, Jared had to admit it was a lots of fun, and maybe he would have to buy a Wii after all when they returned to Vancouver.

+++

For Saturday evenings it was traditional for the group to hit some bar or club, so, prior to the weekend Jared had searched for something fitting on the net and had indeed found a convenient little club in the next town only half an hour away.

The plan was to leave some time after 9 p.m. The girls excused themselves from their after dinner conversation in the kitchen around eight going upstairs to change. Even Jensen left soon after, patting Jared's shoulder and announcing something about making himself pretty for his favorite boyfriend. Jared followed about fifteen minutes later, because he wanted to change into something more appropriate as well, but also because he wanted to check up on Jensen.

When Jared entered their room Jensen was still in the bathroom, so he took the chance to slip on a fresh pair of designer jeans, a new shirt and some sneakers. Thus finished, he sat back on the bed to wait for Jensen.

And waited.

After another 10 minutes of pure boredom, doing nothing but listening to the muted sounds coming from the bathroom, Jared got antsy. He tried to be patient, took out his cell phone and played around a bit with it, but that only worked for so long. Finally, he started staring at the door, willing Jensen to step the hell out already. Which of course, didn't work. When it felt as if at least three hours had passed, he finally called out for Jensen, asking if Jensen was still alive in there - only to be told out that Jensen needed at least another fifteen minutes.

"Dude, you're taking this method acting thing a bit too far, you know?"

"Shut up! You have no idea how much work this crap is!" Sounded through the closed door.

"Yeah yeah, don't get your panties in a twist. Next time _I_ will be the girl, okay?"

He heard Jensen cackling through the door.

"What?"

"Ever saw 'The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman'? That will be you in high heels."

Jared snorted. "Then you'll just have to be careful I don't stomp on you."

About twenty minutes later Jensen finally opened the bathroom door. He wore a long sleeved dress, colored in several shades of violet that was finished off with some metallic looking belt. The dress ended about an inch above Jensen's knees, showing off his bare calves.

"I'm sorry it took so long, but I had to shave my legs," Jensen mumbled, crossing the room on bare feet to take a pair of shoes out of the closet.

"Back to high heels, I see?" Jared asked with a smile.

"Yeah, the ballerinas look absolutely horrible with this dress."

Jared snorted. "So you decided to put on your pretty dancing shoes instead?"

"Shut up!" He glanced suspiciously at Jared. "And don't even think about asking me to dance with you in those!"

Laughing, Jared said: "Have you ever seen me dance? That's because I _don't_."

Jensen put his foot up on the chair to close the ankle snaps of the black two inch heel.

Still sitting down, resting his head on both his hands, Jared saw something pink flashing when Jensen's leg went up. Giving in to his curiosity, he bent down a bit, cocked his head and looked up Jensen's skirt. "Jensen, are you wearing pink panties?"

Jensen hurriedly put his foot back down, and this time, Jared was perfectly sure that it was indeed a blush that was creeping up Jensen's cheeks as he answered: "Dude, you can't wear boxer-shorts under a skirt - it totally shows!"

"Yes, but _pink_?" Jared raised his eyebrows.

Jensen covered his face with his right hand. He sighed. "Have I mentioned my sister has a sadistic streak? Which is why she only bought me the most girly underwear possible?"

"I knew there was a reason I liked her," Jared grinned, watching as Jensen grabbed a black purse, ready to go.

+++

They left at half past nine, because the other girls apparently needed even more time than Jensen. After a short discussion they decided to take only two cars, leaving Alex's convertible behind. Alex first reacted kind of grumpy to the driving arrangements, but soon shut up when Jensen remarked that they had no idea which kind of neighborhood the club was in.

Thanks to Jared's GPS system they found their destination effortlessly. Finding a parking space was a little more complicated, but they managed.

Passing the bouncer they paid the cover charge and descended into the club. The stairs ended in a scarcely lit room, the walls covered with large dark red lacquer tiles interrupted from time to time with white or dark brown glass panels that were illuminated form behind.

The place was dominated by the highly frequented bar, consisting of what looked like dark glass, running alongside the left and the opposite wall. To the right was a huge doorway, leading to the dance floor, which was already packed. Beyond that Jared was able to get a glimpse of another room separated from the dance floor by a big glass pane covered with widely scattered black patterns.

They pushed their way through the outer rim of the dancing crowd. Jared noticed the DJ on the opposite site, while they slipped through some sort of double door and found themselves in the last room, apparently the place to chill with the music in there almost imperceptible. The walls of the room were lined with long dark brown leather sofas - all occupied - and the middle of the room was filled by scattering of high tables.

They managed to find a free table just to their left, not very far from the couches and the glass panel and had therefore a good view of the dance floor. Alex and Ron soon excused themselves to get some beers, while the girls eyed the room full of dancing bodies with an exited gleam in their eyes.

"Let's go dancing!" Elle proposed, full of exhilaration.

"You girls go. We'll wait for our beer first," Joe answered.

"Jennifer?" Elaine touched Jensen's arm. "Are you coming with us?"

Jensen shook his head which Elaine promptly ignored. "Come on! This will be fun!!" Theresa nodded in agreement. "Let's give the boys a few minutes on their own."

Jensen looked at Jared, a strange mix of panic and annoyance written on his face. He silently mouthed: "Help?"

Grinning, Jared looked at Elaine and called: "Just take her with you! She's always a bit shy about this, but I know she absolutely loves to dance." He winked at Jensen. "Go on, have fun, sweetheart!"

Jensen's eyes narrowed visibly, but before he could say anything, Elle had grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

Amused, Jared let his eyes follow Jensen being dragged off through the opening in the glass towards the dancing mass. Reaching their destination Elle finally let go, with a friendly clap on Jensen's shoulder, offering a big smile that was mostly ignored by Jensen, who looked like he was still processing what had just happened to him. Jared watched Elaine starting to move her hips to the music, obviously enjoying the opportunity to express herself. Jensen though, was still standing there, completely out of place - he might have looked a little bit lost if not for the glare he was shooting in Jared's direction.

Jared snickered, waving at Jensen like a proud parent would at their child.

Jensen just flipped him the bird when Theresa grabbed his arm and motioned for Jensen to follow her moves. Slowly but surely he copied Theresa and while it looked rather awkward for the first minute or so, it didn't take long for Jensen to get a hang of it. Jared enjoyed the show and watched Jensen starting to copy other moves of the girls around him - unfortunately not really catching as much of it as he wanted to, as Jensen vanished more and more between the bodies of the other clubbers.

Jared was chatting with Joe about his plans for the hiatus after this season, when Alex and Ron finally returned with an assortment of beer bottles, of which he happily grabbed a Coors. They sipped their beer together, examining their surroundings, joking about all and everything, especially people with weird looking dance moves.

Finishing his last few drops, Alex put the bottle on the table and announced that he was off to hunt for some female company. Neither Joe nor Jared commented on that, as they watched him go, having expected nothing less.

The music slowed down, and when Jared searched for Jensen's blond head, he could see that Jensen had stopped dancing and was about to cross the glass partition, when Elle suddenly grabbed him by the arm, turning him around so she could talk directly into his ear.

Something was wrong. Jensen's body suddenly screamed "discomfort" with every fiber.

Elaine seemed to ask something of Jensen, whose answering gestures showed something along the lines of an embarrassing apology. He looked up and caught Jared's eyes, seeming a bit helpless. Jared raised his eyebrows inquiringly, but of course no satisfying answer was forthcoming: Jensen's only reaction was a quick headshake. Only Jared had no clue what it was that Jensen meant to deny.

Watching Jensen gesturing, saying something with an apologetic shrug, Jared worried that Elaine might have figured out that 'Jennifer' wasn't exactly what she seemed to be. He felt a slight panic attack coming on, wondering how the hell he was to explain the whole fake girlfriend thing.

Then all of a sudden Jensen smiled and patted Elaine on the shoulder, after which she vanished into the crowd, looking perfectly fine and dandy. Jared didn't know what to make of it.

Curiosity won out and Jared made his way towards Jensen. When he finally reached him, his friend was frowning big time. Jared's heart sunk even lower. "Everything okay? What happened? Did she-"

"Jay, it's okay. Elle… umm… it's..." Jensen stuttered.

"What?"

Sighing Jensen pulled him closer, apparently not wanting them to be overheard. "Apparently her bag is out in the car and she asked me for a tampon, okay?"

Jared's world collapsed into a fit of laughter.

"You remember that I turned down the hot tub earlier, pretending to have my period? I don't even want to know what she's thinking of me now. So, it's not THAT funny!" Jensen hissed, annoyed.

"Yes, it is, man. It totally is," Jared hiccupped. "This is priceless."

Jensen's eyes narrowed. "Of course _you_ would think so."

"Remember, you're not really a girl, Jen. It's not really important, what she thinks of you, since you probably will never meet her again."

"What? I'm not invited for next year? That's harsh, man," he said sarcastically and shoved Jared into the direction of the bar. "Go and get your girlfriend another beer, before she decides that single life has the better perks." With that Jensen turned and made his way back to their table.

+++

The bar was still completely crowded and the one and only bartender had a strange way of serving everything female first, flirting included, next in line so to speak were apparently all his friends and acquaintances and very far down the bottom of the list all other customers. Suffice to say, it took Jared ages to order a Corona for Jensen and some non-alcoholic beer for himself - and he only did so successfully after grabbing the bartender's arm when he went past him the thirtieth time or so. That earned him a rather angry look, but also finally his and Jensen's drinks.

He fought his way back through the masses, glad to reach his destination without spilling the beer - sometimes his height really came in handy - only to notice that everyone else had obviously taken off from their table. Everyone but Jensen. Who was besieged by a small group of men?

Jared frowned. Apparently people _always_ noticed Jensen. Normally it was mainly girls, in this situation he obviously seemed to attract the opposite gender. Not that Jared was very surprised about that. Jensen was really pretty, 'female' version included. What was surprising though was the fact that Jensen seemed to have a good time - with a bunch of strangers. All the time Jared had known him, Jensen usually took some time to warm up to other people. Not to say that he wasn't friendly and welcoming, but it was more of a reserved politeness. Jensen had a way of holding back, watching and analyzing until he figured out what made a person tick before he proclaimed them safe to proceed to a more personal level.

In addition, Jensen had never really been the hands on kind of guy - not like Jared who constantly accentuated everything with hands and feet. So Jared was quite astonished to see Jensen holding some frilly pink drink in one hand, playfully poking the guy on his right into the shoulder, then laughing out loud about something guy #2 said. Jared watched as Jensen smiled, sipped his drink and generally acted as if he belonged - right into the middle of bunch of very male admirers, one of whom was just at this moment blatantly checking out Jensen's ass. And Jensen did not only let it happen, he responded by batting his eyelashes at the idiot!

_Jenny_ obviously had an interesting point of view concerning the whole girlfriend concept.

Grabbing the two bottles with one hand, Jared snuck up from behind, quickly winding one arm around the waist in front of him and pulling a completely startled Jensen back into his embrace. Knowing perfectly well that all eyes were on him, he crooned a low "Missed me?" into Jensen's ear.

Once Jensen realized it was Jared, he relaxed visibly and let out an amused huff. "Boys, meet Jared, my… boyfriend." He placed his drink on the table and pointedly laid his hand on Jared's.

Pulling himself up to his full height behind Jensen, Jared glared into the round, signaling them to get lost. "Hi boys, if you don't mind…"

At which point they hastily scurried away.

Jensen turned around in Jared's arms, catching his 'boyfriend's' eyes. "Jealous much?" he asked, utterly amused, while patting Jared's chest right over his heart.

"You're not the only actor here, _baby_. What would people think if I let my girlfriend get molested by total strangers?" Jared grinned, squeezing him tightly for a second, then letting go of the embrace and taking a step back.

"Aww, and there I thought you cared," Jensen sighed, overly dramatic.

"Yeah, yeah," he handed over the Corona. "Here, in case the disappointment is becoming too much, you can always cry into your beer."

Jensen smirked in response. "Maybe I should simply call one of them back to gain a real shoulder to cry on?"

Shaking his head with a sigh, Jared said: "So how come you suddenly had an all male audience?"

"I don't know. After Theresa dragged Ron off to dance with her, I was kind of on my own. And I guess you know what happens with girls who hang around in clubs all alone?" Jensen winked.

"So you decided to flirt with them?" Jared's irritation was unfortunately getting the better of him.

Jensen watched him for second then soothingly touched Jared's shoulder. "Hey, all we did was talk about the latest basketball games. And one of them brought me a drink." He shrugged and added: "At least it didn't take him ages to get it."

"Don't remind me. The barkeeper only tends to chosen ones and I am obviously not one of them. Meaning, the next round is definitely on you." Jared nudged Jensen's arm. "I bet you get served in two seconds flat if you bat your eyelashes at him."

+++

Much later, Theresa and Joe had achieved possession of one of the couches by sheer luck when another group had decided to go dancing. By the time Jared and Jensen had returned from the bar with drinks for the six of them, they were finally able to sit down and settled back next to Ron and Elaine.

It didn't take long until Theresa and Joe excused themselves and were off again to have some fun on the dance floor.

Jared leaned back and watched Theresa and Joe swaying slowly to the music. He couldn't suppress a slight feeling of envy. If he was very lucky, he might someday have what they had. Bumping his shoulder, Jensen inquiringly raised his eyebrow, but since this wasn't really a topic Jared wanted to discuss with Jensen of all people, he just shrugged, taking another mouthful from his bottle.

Then Ron and Elaine got up, having decided it was time again to shake a leg as well.

Suddenly Jensen stood up too, grabbing Jared's hand, a really evil smirk appearing on his face as he did so. "C'mon. If they can do it, so can we."

Jared pulled his hand away. "No way."

"But Jaaay. Everybody's doing it," Jensen whined.

Jared decidedly stayed put. "Jen. As I said: I don't dance."

"C'mon, you know you _want_ to," Jensen coaxed, his voice laced with sarcasm, while he grabbed Jared's hand once more and tried to tug him into the direction of the dance floor.

Jared gritted his teeth. "Let me rephrase that for you: I. Don't. Dance. _Ever_."

Inwardly he sighed. Obviously he shouldn't have pushed Jensen into dancing when they had come here. He should have known that it would come back to bite him in the ass - Jensen just wasn't the type to let things go without teaching you a lesson first.

Surprisingly, Jensen let go of his hand just then, but before Jared could give a sigh of relief, Jensen stepped even closer, bending down - right into his personal space. His left hand landed next to Jared's head on the wall, the right one reached out and softly but pointedly caressed Jared's face. Jensen's eyes crinkled in predatory amusement, obviously knowing full well that Ron and Elaine were still waiting, watching them and Jared couldn't pull away.

Pushing Jared's hair a bit to the side, Jen bent over and whispered into Jared's ear. "If you don't want to dance with your _girl_, I can always dance with somebody else."

Jared imagined Jensen's body in the arms of one of the men he had chased off - and froze. He turned his head looking directly into Jensen eyes, whispering: "What if somebody realizes…," he trailed off.

Jensen obviously noticed his anguish and let his hand fall to Jared's shoulder. He quietly offered: "Relax, Jay. Nobody will notice anything I don't want them to."

Jared watched as Ron and Elaine made their way into the other room, obviously they had given up on waiting for them to make up their minds.

"Jen-" Jared was interrupted by Jensen's finger on his lips.

"Besides, you can make sure this never happens by standing up and dancing with me," Jensen cajoled. "Just one song. Come on!" He grabbed Jared's hand again, pulling him up - almost by brute force. "You really don't have a choice, _baby_. Otherwise I won't put out tonight," Jensen added with a smirk.

"If you put it that way," Jared sighed. "You will _so_ pay for this, _Jenny_. And don't complain if you end up with flat toes and bruises on your shins. You asked for this."

Jensen waved off. "Aww, it can't be that bad. It's just a dance. Not close combat."

Jared cocked his head and pointedly stepped on one of Jensen's stiletto heels on purpose. "If you say so?" He smiled, all innocence.

"_You_ fucker," Jensen murmured under his breath, pulling Jared with him to the dance floor, right into the middle of gyrating bodies.

Jared didn't know the song that was playing. Something with a dull, heavy beat that inevitably pounded through your stomach. Watching Jensen grinning at him while he swayed his hips to the tact, Jared tried hard to concentrate on moving with the music without stepping on anyone's toes - nor hitting anybody in the face.

Fact was, Jared and dancing didn't go together - at all. He actually still had nightmares of his prom dance, not only had he constantly stepped on his date's shoes, he had also bumped so hard into another pair of dancers, he had basically mowed them over, causing them to land rather hard on their asses. And if that wasn't embarrassing enough, he hit some other girl in the face, because he had swung his arms around too much. Suffice to say, Jared mostly had refused to dance ever since. He was fairly sure he still looked as much like an utter klutz now as he had back then.

Thankfully, the music soon slowed down, melting into another song. Time to leave. Around them people were pairing off, holding each other close. But before he could leave, Jensen had grabbed him by his shirt, indicating that this was far from over. "I meant a whole song, Jay," he shouted over the music and then put his hands on Jared's shoulders.

Jared glared at Jensen, but the only reaction he gained was a grin and Jensen's lips forming a soundless "What?", before Jensen went on as if nothing had happened.

Pulling Jensen a bit closer, Jared pushed the blond hair away from his friend's ear and shouted: "I really hate you!"

In return, Jensen just smiled, pulled Jared's head down and shouted back: "Prove it." And then he fucking winked at him and continued swaying slowly, pulling Jared along.

On a whim Jared put both his hands on Jensen's ass and pulled him in. He was fairly certain that two could play this game.

Jensen looked surprised for about two and half seconds, then he wrapped his arms around Jared's neck, laughing. "You sure express your hate in the strangest ways, Jay."

Since he was not sure if getting into another game of Gay Chicken was possible without doing things he probably would regret later on, Jared sighed, gave in and adjusted his movements to Jensen's as good as he could. Thankfully, the slow tune made it relatively easy not to step on Jensen's feet, since one did not have to move around much anyway - and if he was lucky the song would be over soon.

For a while, they both slowly moved to the music, and overall Jared had to admit to himself that the whole dancing thing wasn't that bad, as long as he could hold Jensen. Of course, that was the second when the guy in question suddenly offered a wide grin and laid his head on Jared's shoulder. Jared was just about to tell Jensen where he could stick it, but then got completely sidetracked by Jensen's warm breath grazing his neck.

Okay, maybe it was kind of nice. And maybe, _maybe_ Jensen agreed, because Jared noticed that Jensen had closed his eyes. Turning his head to get a better look at Jensen's face, he felt how Jensen's body relaxed against him, and when Jared let his hands wander to Jensen's back to hold him tighter, a little smile appeared on Jensen's face. To Jared's utter surprise, Jensen then started to lightly nuzzle Jared's neck, and Jared couldn't suppress a slight smile himself as hope blossomed inside him, until he noticed that their change of posture also meant that his cock was now slowly rubbing against Jensen's hips and was therefore getting all kinds of excited.

Fuck.

He tried to think of several nasty things to gain back control, but unfortunately, it was hard to concentrate when the source of your problem was still in your arms. Obviously, there weren't many options left.

"This song will never end, will it?" He said quietly, wishing things could be different.

Jensen lifted his head and spoke loudly into the direction of Jared's ear. "We can stop if you want to. I think we danced enough to cement our cover." His face was utterly blank, and Jared didn't exactly know how to interpret that. But fact was, if they danced some more, Jared would quite probably embarrass himself. He gave Jensen an apologetic smile, grasped his hand and pulled him through the crowd into the direction of the bar. "C'mon, you can make fun of me, while I'm trying to get you another beer."

+++

"I need to go to the bathroom," Jensen put his bottle on the narrow clipboard behind the couch and stood up.

Since they were alone on the couch, Jared touched his arm, grinning up at him: "Don't forget to use the one for the ladies…"

"Shit." Jensen paled visibly, obviously not having thought about the fact that he couldn't go to the men's room as usual. He frowned, rubbing his forehead. "I can't go into the ladies bathroom!"

"Why not?"

"It's the _ladies_ room, for god's sake!" Jensen hissed.

"You rather want to go into the men's room?"

"Very funny," Jensen grumbled, evidently not amused.

Jared shrugged. "You could always go outside and find some dark alley, I guess."

Relaxing visibly, Jensen grabbed his purse from the sofa. "Good idea." He strode away but stopped short, when he noticed Jared wasn't following. "Are you coming?"

"Is this another method acting thing? Doing the girly thing and go to the bathroom together?"

"Do you want your girlfriend to wander the dark dangerous streets alone? C'mon, I bet you could use some fresh air too," Jensen beckoned.

"Yeah, yeah." Jared got rid of this bottle, stood up and they found their way to the exit.

When they stepped outside into the cold night, the change of surroundings was almost shocking: Less noise, more oxygen. And damn, it felt good to finally breathe some fresh air again. They crossed the small crowd of people in front of the club and took a look around. Unfortunately the club was situated at the main road and therefore in the better parts of this town. With it being the city centre, the houses had been built pretty seamlessly next to each other, so there was absolutely no dark alley in sight - only big crossroads in both directions and a few people strolling along the colorful shopping windows.

They walked down the block, staring into the next street, which didn't look any more promising. Jensen shrugged and turned around the corner. Each street was just as good as the next to get away from the brightly lit main road.

Another block farther down they finally got lucky, finding a narrow dark alley between two apartment houses.

"Go on, I'll be standing guard," Jared gestured towards the entry of the blind alley.

Jensen sighed, carefully stepping into the darkness, soon becoming nothing but a silhouette, then vanishing completely. A loud clank, followed by something sounding kind of sludgy and Jensen's cursing, made Jared cringe. "Everything okay back there?"

"Yeah," it came out of the alley. "I don't even wanna know what I just stepped into though. It smells terrible here. I know I've said this before, but man, you _so_ owe me for this."

Staring into the dark, Jared could hear some clothes rustling. "I know, I know. Look, I'm sorry, I didn't think this through. It's just that we always go clubbing on Saturday."

"Jared, I didn't mind coming here, I just mind having to pee _here_." Jensen's voice was accompanied by more rustling.

Bored, Jared looked up and down the deserted street. "You done there soon?"

"Dude, this is a bit more _complicated_ than usual? Not to mention I can't see a thing?"

"Want me to come in there and help you?" Jared joked. Right about that second the sound of liquid splashing against a hard surface could be heard.

"Rain check?" Jensen replied, amused.

They made their way back to the club, finally reaching the main road again. They walked around the corner when Jared noticed two twenty-something girls walking towards them, talking animatedly. He instantly got a bad feeling and yes, there it was: The girl on the right looked at him and stopped talking, her eyes widening.

"Uh-oh," Jensen commented in a hushed voice, a slightly panicked look on his face.

Jared groaned inwardly. This was absolutely not a good time to run into fangirls. Fuck! What if they recognized Jensen? He wondered if they'd manage to get away by simply crossing the street, but by then, the girls were already right in front of them, looking all excited and nervous. Not knowing what else to do, Jared slung his arm around Jensen's waist pulling him closer. Jensen obviously got the idea, since he let the blond hair fall into his face, before he hugged right back, burying his face in Jared's neck.

For a second Jared thought they might manage to pass unchallenged, but the girl on the right started talking: "I'm sorry, but would it be possible to get an autograph, Jared? I totally love your show! I never miss an episode."

Jared felt Jensen cringing, but nevertheless put a big, hopefully friendly smile on his face, while he kept Jensen pressed to his side, angling his body so that the girls wouldn't see a lot of his face. He agreed to sign whatever they could come up with, and did the usual small talk, asking what their names were, where they were from, how long they had been fans and so on. He noticed that the second girl eyed up Jensen, but so far there were no real signs of her recognizing him. Thank God. He really didn't want to read about him and Jensen having some kinky sex on that stupid Television Without Pity website tomorrow.

Quickly he scribbled his signature on some ripped out paper, which turned out to be a bit more complicated if you had a grown man in your arms and did absolutely not want to let go of him. Somehow Jared managed, even though admittedly it looked a bit crooked.

When he thought they were finally able to plead their goodbyes - hopefully before someone wanted to take photos - the second girl asked curiously: "How is Jensen?"

Feeling Jensen's breath hitching, he calmingly rubbed his fingers over his friend's back, while he looked at the girls. "Oh, he's back in L.A, enjoying his week off. I bet he's sorry to have missed out on two such wonderful girls." Jared's smile slipped for half a second when he suddenly felt Jensen's fingers tweaking him into the side. "Unfortunately we can't spend more time with you, since we're meeting up with some friends and we're already late as it is. But it was nice meeting you." He smiled at them, hopefully with the right mixture of apology and embarrassment. Not waiting for an answer he moved along and pulled Jensen with him.

They hurriedly walked down the street.

"That sucked," Jensen said, his voice flat.

"I hear you. I don't even want to imagine what could have happened back there."

"We were very lucky nobody recognized you in the bar so far, dude."

Jared looked at Jensen. "I don't think you should go back in there. I'll go and grab Alex and anybody else then we're heading back to the cabin."

+++  


**SUNDAY**

Jensen shifted a little, slowly waking up. Jared waited… and waited… and yep, there it was: The beautiful second when Jensen went from utterly relaxed to stiff as a poker because he'd realized where exactly he was: Snuggled up to Jared, head resting on his chest, one arm slung around Jared's waist.

Jared couldn't suppress the small snicker.

"I will hear this 'til the end of time, won't I?" Jensen croaked.

"My, oh my, and we didn't even talk about the dry humping yet," Jared offered with a bright smile.

Jensen groaned, rolled off of Jared and buried his face in his pillow - clearly trying to suffocate himself.

"Aww, don't be mad. It's morning, and I still respect you, baby," Jared remarked, voice full of amusement. He bent over, quickly kissed the back of Jensen's head and bounced off to take a shower.

+++

Soon enough Jared was sitting on the bed, left alone with his thoughts again, waiting for Jensen to come out of the bathroom, so they could join the others for breakfast. He wondered what this day would bring; if there would be another challenge to outdo each other with all the girlfriend/boyfriend stuff - like Friday evening or yesterday at the club. Jared had to admit he loved the thrill it brought, even though he always had to back down sooner or later, before it could blow up into his face.

Nevertheless, leaving the obvious stuff aside, Jared noted them both having become more touchy-feely with each other - the walk yesterday morning being just one of these examples. In addition he found himself emphasizing his jokes by touching Jensen all the time - or just grabbing him to share his joy. Somewhere along the way he had mostly stopped pretending and started doing what came naturally - ignoring the walls he had built up over the last years.

As for Jensen, Jared had no idea. Jensen had hardly left his side over the last two days, always hovering close, constantly invading Jared's personal space, even letting their legs touch under the table while they ate - though Jared was sure playing footsie didn't help with keeping up their cover - considering the whole point of it was to do it unnoticed.

And maybe it really _was_ all just part of the girlfriend act, but lots of it was driving Jared nuts. Especially the making no sense parts. At times, he thought Jensen's behavior was just pure Jensen and might therefore be real, but then he was reminded that Jensen always did a great improv, and seeing as they were going without a script this weekend, it was hard to tell what was real and what was not.

Maybe Jared just wanted things so badly to be true that he read them wrong in the first place. He knew Jensen liked him, probably even loved him - platonically as a friend. Like the brothers they played on the show. And that didn't include that certain kind of brotherly love their fans wrote about on the internet.

He sighed, burying his face in his hands. In the end, he probably should simply enjoy the whole thing for as long as it lasted. He just hoped that he was able to slip back into normal non-boyfriend mode when the weekend was over.

"_Jay?_"

Startled, Jared stared at the bathroom, when he heard Jensen calling out for him.

"Is there a problem, Honey?" he answered amusedly. Opening the door, he was kind of taken aback by the view of 'Jen' standing in front of the mirror, wig, make-up, bra and all, yanking angrily at the small corset around his waist.

"Would you be so kind and tie this thing up, before I rip it to shreds?" Jensen said irritated.

Jared still stared at Jensen standing there almost naked, his ass barely covered by flimsy black satin panties, the straps of the black lace bra meeting on his well muscled back, while he fidgeted with the cincher covering his waist. Of course Jared had known that Jensen was wearing some kind of undergarment to reshape his figure, but knowing and seeing were obviously two completely different things.

"Jared?"

Jared forced himself to snap out of it and stepped into the small room, almost squeezing himself into the tiny space between Jensen and the shower stall, trying hard not to brush against Jensen's bare skin. "Didn't you manage this all by yourself for two days?" he asked, wondering if he sounded as off as he felt right now, while he carefully straightened the waist cincher and re-threaded the strings.

"Apparently today is my _lucky_ day." Jensen gave a resigned sigh.

Jared slowly pulled the strings tighter, watching Jensen pressing his hands to his waist, checking.

"Tighten it a bit more, please."

"Isn't that uncomfortable?" Jared asked hesitatingly.

Jensen shrugged. "You get used to it."

Jared carefully grabbed Jensen's bare shoulders and turned him around, tugging a bit at the front side. "So, everything's fine and dandy again, Ms. Ackles." His gaze wandered further down and stopped. "Where's your dick?" he blurted out without thinking.

"He got depressed and crawled back in," Jensen said dryly.

Jared raised his eyebrows inquiringly.

"Look, there's this thong thingy you use to hide your family jewels between your legs."

Jared still stared at Jensen's non-existing bulge, envisioning the logistics. That couldn't be entirely comfortable…

"You want me to show you?" Jensen asked, sounding completely earnest.

"What? NO!" Jared squeaked. "No, no. Just keep doing what you're doing. I'll be waiting outside." That said, he hastened out of the room, closing the door behind him with a bang.

+++

Since the sun was shining, and the weather was generally convenient for it, they decided have a barbecue for lunch. Theresa and Joe set the table in the back yard, while Ron was organizing three more chairs and a sunshade that Jared had noticed in the storage room. Meanwhile Alex and Ron argued about the correct way to start the fire, handling coals, paper and lighter fluid. Elaine looked after the drinks and Jared was getting the meat ready in the kitchen, while Jensen made some salad.

Today Jensen had opted to wear a long sleeved rather plain black dress that had one of those waterfall tops, where the fabric was creating a loose folding that started at his shoulders and framed Jensen's neckline - only interrupted by the black bra straps peeking out. Jensen's waist was enhanced by a simple bright yellow belt and below the midriff the dress turned into a straight cut skirt that covered Jensen's knees, but offered a slit up the side. The only thing that didn't really fit were Jensen's brown ballet flats - obviously, today comfort had won over style, Jared thought, snickering inwardly.

He spread some more marinade over the raw meat in front of him then put the piece back on the plate next to the others. After washing his hands, he watched fascinated as Jensen swiftly chopped some bell pepper into perfect little pieces. "Someday you will make somebody very happy, being the perfect little housewife," he joked.

Jensen stopped, putting the knife down and stemmed his hands into his hips. "But I thought I was _your_ little housewife? Don't you love me anymore?" He pouted.

Almost about to flip Jensen off, Jared decided that this was a nice opportunity to turn the tables on Jensen. "Aww, _Baby_, of course I still _love_ you." He stepped next to Jensen, forcefully pulling him into a full body hug.

Jensen let out a surprised squeak, but caught himself quickly. Turning around so he faced Jared, Jensen retaliated by slinging his arms around Jared's neck. "Prove it?" he smiled sweetly, mischief in his eyes. He turned his face upwards, their mouths only inches apart, as if waiting to be kissed.

Fixating on the glossy pink lips, Jared contemplated the possibility of simply going with it, seeing that he probably wouldn't have the chance again. He noticed a single blond hair sticking to Jensen's lipstick, so he carefully brushed it away, all the while waiting for Jensen to laugh and pat him on the back.

But Jensen just stared up at him with an unreadable expression.

Jensen's gorgeous green eyes widened in surprise when Jared cupped his face, wondering how far he could go but Jensen still didn't pull away. Not even when Jared slowly closed the distance, searching Jensen's eyes-

When suddenly Elaine stormed into the kitchen, demanding a damp cloth to clean the chairs outside - and Jared and Jensen jumped apart as if bitten.

Jared gave Elaine one of the cloths that lay in the sink and she was gone as quickly as she had appeared, but so had the moment. Jensen was back to cutting another bell pepper, intently staring down at the cutting board. Sighing, Jared went back to marinating and cursed the fact that somebody up there obviously hated him.

Soon after, they all sat outside around the table and enjoyed their lunch, one of them standing up to attend to the grill from time to time. Upon first bite Ron praised the marinade that was an old Padalecki family recipe.

Shortly after, Theresa offhandedly commented on how much she loved Jensen's salad, which in turn prodded Alex to tease Jared about how happy he must be to finally have a girlfriend who would be able to cook for him. Jensen tensed, Jared didn't know what to say, and Alex looked a bit surprised about the awkward silence on their part - until Joe was kind enough to change the topic.

+++

Joe had offered to take care of to the grill and the last remnants of the meat for a while, so Jared went and got himself another beer. He watched Jensen sitting together with Ron, Elaine and Alex, talking about sports and having a good time. Not really wanting to intrude, since they had hardly spent minutes apart that weekend anyway, he walked to the edge of the yard and stared into the distance, contemplating Jensen, his own changed feelings and the work they would have to get back to in a few days. Hopefully things would be setting themselves right again, once everything was back to normal. Maybe he would be able to make himself forget about all the little intimate touches, the embraces, the dancing, the happy, adoring looks Jensen gave him and the cute little snores he made at night. Jared just hoped the following week would be time enough to rebuild his walls.

Theresa came up beside him, slowly nipping at her wine, watching him. "You know, she's different than all your old girlfriends."

Jared almost choked on his beer. Faking a smile, he looked up at the sky. "You think so?"

Theresa took another sip from her glass, paused then smiled up at him. "Yes, I do. The other girls you brought these last years were these pretty girls, who all thought life was about parties, clothes and clinging to one's boyfriend." She grinned. "Don't get me wrong, I don't mean this in a bad way - they were all very fun to hang around with, especially Sandy - and we all noticed how much you liked them."

Jared took another gulp from his bottle, motioning with a smile for her to go on. "But?"

"Jennifer though, she's, I don't know, standing on her own two feet? She's not trying to constantly please you. It's like she knows what she wants, but never asks for anything you're not willing to give." Theresa looked up at him, grinning widely. "And she's the first human being ever who I saw managing you during your sugar highs."

"Not an easy task, I admit," Jared said with an amused smile.

"You two really balance each other out. And she's funny as hell."

"Yes, she is," Jared fondly agreed.

"She's a great catch, Jay. I really hope you two will work out. But hey, what am I telling you? Anyone can see you're both head over heels in love with each other," she laughed, humping his shoulder.

Jared joined in, hoping his laughter didn't sound as bitter as he felt. After all, Theresa only got one of them right. Sometimes he really hated that Jensen was such a terrific actor.

+++

By mid-afternoon, the sky turned greyer and greyer, until single drops of rain fell which soon turned into such a heavy downpour that not even the sunshade proved to be a good shelter. Hurriedly they carried their leftovers into the house, while the embers were extinguished by the rain. They stood around, looking at each other, not really knowing what to do besides cursing the weather, until Alex opted to run outside and get his other two controllers from the backseat to play some Guitar Hero against each other. This time, even girls agreed, although it took Jensen to happily concur first.

Jared leaned against the door frame and watched Jensen competing with Joe. Like Alex before him, Joe didn't stand much of a chance. Jared smiled, observing Jensen focusing on the screen. It didn't make a difference if it was work or plain stupid fun - anything Jensen did, he gave 150 percent to, most of the time with a smile on his face. It was something Jared had always admired about him.

Suddenly Alex came up from behind, clapping Jared on the back - almost spilling Jared's coke. Following Jared's gaze, he remarked: "She's quite the catch, dude."

Instantly flashing back to his conversation with Theresa a few hours ago, Jared didn't really know if he should laugh or cry. In the end, he just turned his head, going for a change of topic: "Even though she just completely humiliated you?"

"Never happened! I'm in complete denial." Alex grinned. "But yes, she's not only a competent gamer, she's also pretty, intelligent, funny and she doesn't take shit. What more do you want, man? She's basically marriage material!"

Jared gaped at Alex.

"What?" Alex looked at him curiously. "I mean, if it was my girlfriend, I'd tell her to pluck her eyebrows, but as for the rest… I know you've just met, but really, Jay, if you're still together in a year, you should totally go for it."

Still sidetracked by the image of Jensen in a white wedding dress, throwing him death glares through his veil, Jared could do nothing but stare open-mouthed at Alex. In the end he took a sip from his glass, deciding not to comment at all might be the best way to end this unwanted conversation.

"Tell me," Alex asked conspiratorially "Is the sex as good as the rest?"

Jared sputtered. Even though he was used to stuff like this from Alex, most of the times it still caught him off guard.

Noticing Jensen staring at him inquiringly, all Jared could do was smile back reassuringly. Turning to Alex, he said with irritation in his voice: "You _fucking_ love doing this, don't you?"

Alex just grinned widely, patted Jared on the back and squeezed past him to let himself fall next to Theresa onto the couch.

Jared sighed, emptied the last of his Coke and watched Jensen handing his controller to Theresa after obviously having beaten Joe for the second time. Jared turned around and went into the kitchen to get himself another drink only to find Ron who was busy going through their stock of snacks.

"Did you find the Gummi Bears by any chance?"

"Yup, I think I saw them somewhere down there," Ron said amusedly while he dug through the big box. "Bingo." He triumphantly held up the bag.

"Thanks." Jared snatched them right out of Ron's hand.

"You're welcome. Wouldn't want you to go into withdrawal, Jay."

Jared childishly stuck out his tongue.

"And don't forget to share them with Jennifer," Ron advised with a strange look.

Not exactly knowing what to make of it, Jared decided that Ron was obviously poking fun at his eating habits. "Why do you think I'm taking the whole bag? Of course I will," he said with a grin.

"Must be love then?" Ron inquired with a grin. "I've never ever seen you share your Gummis with anyone else willingly."

There still was an accompanying question mark in the air - not that Jared was really in the mood to elaborate.

"Yeah, guess she's one lucky girl." Jared just wasn't sure Jensen even realized it.

Of course, just that instant Jensen decided to enter the kitchen. "Who's a lucky girl?"

Jared inwardly cringed at the bad timing, but nevertheless put on a wide smile and said "You are!" and pulled Jensen into a short one-armed embrace.

"Yeah, I've just concluded that Jared really must be in love you," Ron said, glancing at Jensen, obviously judging his reaction. "Since I've never seen him share his Gummi Bears with anyone before," Ron remarked with a smile.

Jensen turned his head and looked at Jared speculatively.

Feeling a blush coming on, Jared desperately hoped it wasn't noticeable. Of all the times Ron finally decided to get chatty, it had to be now? Because the thing was: He did share his Gummies not only with 'Jen', he also had naturally always shared them with Jensen.

+++

Since it didn't look like it was ever going to stop raining and they were all getting kind of tired, the group decided to eat something and then simply relax and watch DVDs for the rest of the evening.

Thankfully the DVD collection that came with the cabin wasn't the worst Jared had ever seen - it consisted mostly of action, classic sci-fi and newer horror movies. Looking at the rows of DVDs found in the cupboards, Jared figured they would probably be able to find something for everybody. As long as they didn't watch those High School Musical DVDs - which he and Alex loudly vetoed on first sight - everything would be fine.

Joe and Alex sifted through the collection, making stacks of movies they deemed worthy to see. It was during a long rant by Alex about the incredible idiocy of Van Helsing, that Jared noticed Joe staring longer at one DVD in particular and then at Jensen.

Jared started squirming, his eyes searching Jensen at the other side of the room, who also looked at the DVD in Joe's hand with a frown on his face.

What the fuck? Who the hell owned a copy of _Devour_? When Jared had inspected the DVDs while the caretaker had shown them around, he had searched for Supernatural. But Devour? Nobody with a right mind owned Devour. Even Jensen said so constantly. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

Alex stopped talking mid-sentence, realizing that something was up.

Joe once more curiously looked up at Jensen, then down again.

Jensen sighed and threw his arms in the air, walking over to Joe. "Okay Joe, you got me there!"

Jared suppressed the urge to grab the nearest couch cushion and bury his face in it. Instead he just rubbed his eyes, trying to make himself as small as possible. He was _so_ not looking forward to explain his cross-dressing co-star girlfriend. He would never hear the end of it.

"If you must know, Jensen Ackles is my cousin."

Jared's head snapped up. What?

Jensen raised his eyebrows pointedly at him, obviously wanting him to play along.

"Yes, you know, I usually don't mention it, because-" Jared stopped, trying to come up with something sensible.

"Because people always..." Jensen picked the sentence. "Always start fawning over Jensen. Oh, he's so pretty and such a great actor. Does he have a girlfriend? Can we meet him? Can you get us autographs? Does he curl his eyelashes? I've spent whole evenings answering Jensen questions," Jensen let out a loud annoyed sigh. "I asked Jared a long time ago not to bring it up any more." He pointedly looked back at Joe. "Oh, and by the way, that movie sucks."

Putting the DVD back on the shelf, Joe remarked: "Okay okay, I guess this one is officially vetoed, too."

Jared fought the grin that was trying to split his face. Jensen was a freaking genius! He owed the guy a lot more then just the stupid jersey for this. Getting up from the couch, he stepped behind Jensen and put his arms around him, trying to convey his gratitude with a short hug and a whispered: "Thank you for saving our asses."

Jensen relaxed into Jared's embrace and smiled contently up at Jared.

+++

After carrying a lot of snacks and beverages into the living room, they all squished themselves more or less successful into the U-shaped couch. Jared ended up sitting between Jensen and Theresa at the left bend of the U.

They slipped the second Indiana Jones into the DVD player, ate with gusto during the monkey brain scene, speculated a little bit about the fifth part - joking about Shia pushing Indy around in a wheel chair - and generally cheered as Indy saved the day. Afterwards they decided on some newer horror flick about some girls exploring a cave that neither Jensen nor Jared had seen before but obviously they hadn't missed a thing.

They soon had killed most of the beer and all of the chips. Alex ate the pop tarts, and Jared munched a whole packet of cookies - with a little help from Jensen, who had repeatedly mourned the lack of Gummi Bears. That was until he found the last strawberry twizzler stick which he then proceeded to put between his teeth to poke Jared in the side of his face every three seconds - up to the moment when Jared was annoyed enough to quickly turn his head and snag it away with his own mouth. And because revenge was in this case literally sweet, he made a big show of sucking on it under Jensen's continuous stare. Regrettably for Jared, Jensen never made any move to get it back, even though he seemed a bit fidgety.

Some time after midnight the girls - the real ones that was - decided to go to bed, while the rest of them opted to watch another Die Hard movie. After all you could never watch John McClane blow up terrorists often enough - or so Jensen had proclaimed.

Ironically, he was the first to doze off, head resting right there on Jared's shoulder.

Ron left somewhere in the middle of part two, offering a lame excuse on how he really was too old to stay up all night long. Jared waved him off, pretending to be interested in the movie's conclusion, while in reality he just enjoyed the fact that Jensen was lying across his lap, sound asleep.

Once the plane exploded at the end of part two, Jensen stirred, blearily looking around without really opening his eyes much, but apparently deemed everything fine, since he just huddled back against Jared's chest with a content sigh.

Jared himself couldn't help but smile down at him, petting his head softly - which Alex, the idiot, decided to accompany with quiet gagging noises. Jared just gave him the finger and pointedly wound his arms around Jensen.

Joe and Alex went to bed about fifteen minutes into part three. After Alex' head had once too often dropped onto Joe's shoulder, Joe'd told Alex to go and cuddle his pillow and not him - at least not as long as he didn't intend to follow through.

Jared pretended to be engrossed in the movie and stayed back, finally alone with Jensen. Not, that he wouldn't have loved to go to bed and lie down, but he didn't want to disturb Jensen who still soundly slept in his arms, his head lying against Jared's chest. Though if Jared was honest with himself, the reason he loathed to leave the couch wasn't just pure consideration for Jensen but his own selfishness, as Jared wanted to enjoy his last few hours of being able to touch Jensen without any consequences to the fullest. He was determined to use their time 'together' as best as he could.

He let his eyes trail over Jensen's face and the carefully applied eye-shadow, the black lashes, looking even longer now - and the myriad of freckles that were peaking through the fading layer of make-up. Jared's left hand trailed slowly up through the fake blond tresses, tracing along Jensen's neck and jaw. Closing his eyes, Jared breathed in the girly fruity scent that clung to his friend, seeking out the layer of musk and sweat underneath that was all Jensen.

On the screen Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson drove their taxi through Central Park arguing loudly. Jared reached for the remote on his right and dulled the sound to almost a whisper - he wasn't really interested in the damn movie anyway. Bruce would just as surely kill the bad guy without him watching.

For his part, Jared rather preferred to focus on Jensen, memorizing the feeling of the other man in his arms, of the way his nose wrinkled funnily from time to time in his sleep. He slid down a bit, rested his head on the sofa back, still cradling Jensen in his arms, wishing he could have this for real, even if it was only for a few minutes.

Much later - he probably had drifted off somewhere in between - he started wondering if he should wake Jensen or simply stay put and deal with the consequences, known as corresponding back pain, tomorrow. Tired and undecided, he slowly caressed Jensen's cheek, who in turn rubbed his head against Jared's chest and sighed. His eyelids fluttered a bit then his eyes opened, looking up at Jared. A slow warm smile spread over Jensen's face, speaking of contentment.

Jared couldn't help but smile back. "Hey...," he said lazily and let his thumb tenderly move over Jensen's jaw, feeling the slightest of stubble peaking through. "Did you sleep well?"

Jensen's smile grew wider. To Jared's utter surprise, he didn't answer, but reached up with his right hand and pulled Jared's head down. He softly pressed his lips to Jared's, who promptly froze, not having seen this coming.

Once Jared's brain finally decided to reboot, Jensen was already hurriedly cramming out of his embrace and fleeing from the room.

Touching his lips, Jared stared dumbfounded at the door, now 150 percent awake, wondering what exactly had just happened.

Jensen had kissed him? He hadn't just dreamed that, right?

He grabbed his beer, taking several big gulps, his thoughts running wild. Things were utterly confusing. Either Jensen had wanted to and changed his mind along the way, or it was just another fake display for an in this case non-existing audience. Or maybe Jensen had been still so asleep he'd thought Jared was someone else? Why couldn't things ever be simple?

In the end everything always came back to asking Jensen. Maybe if Jared was careful, he could pass it off as joke? He sighed, burying his face in his hands. At any rate, sitting around and waiting for an epiphany was obviously pretty futile.

+++

When he quietly entered their room, Jensen was already lying in bed with his back turned to Jared, his breathing slow and regular. Maybe he was sleeping or maybe he was just faking it, it was hard to tell when there was nothing to see but some patch of hair peaking out from underneath the covers.

"Jen?" he whispered into the dark.

No reaction. A little louder: "Jensen?"

Nothing.

He sighed, rubbing his eyes.

Trying not to make too much noise, he quickly shed everything but his boxers and hung the clothes over one of the chairs, thankful for the light of the moon slightly illuminating the room.

Jensen still hadn't moved. He really was asleep or very determined to ignore Jared. Either way, it sucked. But then, if Jensen really had wanted to talk - or make out with him, his brain sarcastically provided - he could have stayed in the living room with Jared in the first place.

Jared stood in the dark, watching the huddled figure under the covers, willing him to turn around and say something. This of course did not happen. The only thing that did happen was his feet getting cold.

Eventually, Jared slipped into bed, carefully avoiding touching Jensen. After he had pulled the covers up, he turned outwards and stared into the dark, trying to get his body to relax while he listened to Jensen's slow breathing.

Maybe this was fate's way of saying he should quite literally let sleeping dogs lie.

Life sucked.

+++

Jared rolled from one side to the other, but sleep just wouldn't come - and Jensen lying right next to him didn't make it any easier.

Why on earth had Jensen kissed him? Hadn't he noticed they were alone? Was it just part of the game? Or was it the thing Jared hoped it was: Jensen signaling that he actually felt something for Jared and the whole charade had had much deeper meaning than Jared imagined?

Why the fuck had he just run off and gone to bed, pretending that nothing had happened? And how was Jared supposed to figure out what the truth was, without fucking up their friendship? While Jared didn't think that Jensen would be angry at any advances, once out in the open, the idea alone would change things between them forever. If that hadn't already happened.

He sighed quietly and turned onto his right side, hugging part of the comforter and trying not to stare at Jensen who was currently facing him in his sleep, looking peaceful and undeniably beautiful. Suppressing the urge to reach out and touch him, Jared rolled onto his back, looking at the ceiling, trying to think of anything but Jensen - and failing miserably.

If he were alone, he probably would have simply jerked off - he always slept like a baby afterwards - but there was no way he was pulling out his dick while the object of his affection was lying next to him. Not even when his cock seemed really interested.

He willed his starting erection down and stared out the window into the dark, wondering what time it was. Maybe the sun would rise soon, so he could get up, do something, get his mind off things. Only half a day left to get through and everything would be back to normal. He just had to make himself believe that.

He turned, stretched out his arm and grabbed his watch from the nightstand. 4:23 a.m. Great. Apparently this night would never end. He wondered if he should get up and raid the kitchen. Or simply suffocate himself with his pillow.

He let out another sigh, stretched his legs and turned again in Jensen's direction. Maybe he would sleep better, if he got more comfortable? He sat up and beat his pillow into shape. Lying back down, it still didn't feel much better. He moved restlessly, kicking against the cover then pulled at it to loosen it somewhat.

"Maybe if you'd lie still for a few seconds, you'd actually fall asleep," Jensen murmured.

"Sorry," Jared whispered back.

"C'mere." Jensen slipped closer, gently pushing Jared onto his back. He rested his head next to Jared's shoulder, embracing Jared's waist with one arm. It was almost a replay of the way they woke up the night before - with the exception of Jensen's thumb, drawing slow circles into Jared's skin.

"Can we talk about what happened?" Jared asked quietly, trying to suppress his nervousness.

"Tomorrow, okay?" Jensen murmured. "I'd like to be a bit more awake for this." His voice was becoming more and more a whisper.

Listening to Jensen's slow breathing, Jared relaxed, simply enjoying the warmth and the closeness. Tomorrow then. He turned his head to the side, smelling Jensen's hair. Maybe all his worries were for nothing - right now the world felt pretty much perfect, because _this_ here had to mean something, right?

He used his left arm to pull Jensen a bit closer, smiling about the tired grunt he received. Burying his nose in Jensen's short hair, he never even noticed when he drifted off into dreamland.

+++  
****

MONDAY

Jared woke up the next morning, all hopeful. His smile quickly vanished, happiness turning quickly into dread, once he noted he was alone in bed. Since Jensen's side of the mattress was pretty much cold, Jensen must have been gone for some time. Considering Jensen had postponed their talk - and now didn't even deem it important enough to actually be here - the conclusion was simple. This was not a good sign. Obviously Jensen wasn't really keen on spending time with him. Certainly not in bed.

He rubbed his eyes, squinting at the bright light shining through the window. He concluded that he had slept in and a glance at his watch proved him right. 10.43 a.m. Only a few hours until it was time to say goodbye and get back to their old life. Thankfully, that also meant there was only so much time left, during which he had to keep up the charade. Afterwards he and Jensen would drive home - something he already dreaded - and go separate ways. Maybe some time apart would do them good. Jared certainly would be spending the rest of his short vacation trying to get his composure back and maybe convince himself that this whole weekend had never happened. Now, if only he could get Jensen to agree to this, so they might at least salvage their friendship. And their work. He cursed himself for ever agreeing to let Jensen come here. He should have known that nothing good could ever come from this insane idea.

Grabbing some fresh clothes, he went into the bathroom to take a long shower. If he was lucky, he might drown and would never have to face Jensen again.

+++

Before Jared stepped into the kitchen, he took a deep breath, schooling his features. Somehow he would make it through those last remaining hours.

He could hear Theresa talking to somebody - since he hadn't seen Jensen in the living room on his way here, the chances of him being in the kitchen were pretty good. The thought alone gave him jitters. Maybe he could go back to their room and pretend he was ill? But sooner or later, he would have to face Jensen anyway.

Jared ran his hand over his face, telling himself to calm down, after all he was an actor and therefore should have everything he needed to get through this whole mess. Now, if only he could make himself believe that.

Entering the kitchen, the first thing he saw was Theresa loading the dishwasher and Jensen standing with his back to him, chopping some fruit and filling it in a bowl. He wore another tunic dress, this time a dark red one with a white pattern consisting of twirls and flowers, his feet adorned with his ballerinas.

"…and that's when Joe gave up and bought her the Barbie doll," Theresa added with a smile. Jensen laughed freely. Obviously Jensen didn't suffer from the same anxiety as he did, Jared concluded bitterly.

Theresa looked up and noticed Jared. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" She grinned. "We were just wondering if you were _ever_ going to wake up again."

Jensen had turned around and was now staring at Jared, who avoided eye contact at all cost, looking everywhere but at Jensen. This instant he wanted nothing more than turn on his heels and leave as fast as he could. Nevertheless he pulled himself together, putting on a bright smile directed at Theresa. "Ahh, what can I say? I do need my beauty sleep." He lifted his arms and stretched himself - more as an act for the others than out of need.

Theresa laughed. "Yes, I can totally see how that works," eyeing the ridden up shirt and Jared's stomach muscles. Jared quickly brought his arms back down and smoothed his shirt - probably a lot longer than was necessary.

Out of the corner of his eyes he watched Jensen coming closer, stopping right in front of him. Jared still trying to avoid any form of communication with Jensen, was looking self-consciously at the floor.

Jensen reached up, ignoring how Jared became completely tense at that, and gave him a short full body hug. Carefully grasping Jared's jaw with one hand, he forced him to look into his eyes and probably saw nothing but panic on Jared's part. "Good morning," he smiled and then pecked him quickly on the cheek.

That instant, Jared almost wanted to hit him. This game had stopped being funny ages - okay, hours ago. Couldn't Jensen just fuck off and let it go?

To Jared's annoyance Jensen still didn't step back, but hugged him once more, bringing his face closer to Jared's ear, whispering: "I'm sorry for last night. I shouldn't have…" He suddenly stopped.

_Kissed you!_ Just say it. Bracing himself, Jared tried to put some space between them, but Jensen was still holding on to his neck, making it pretty much impossible.

Jensen, obviously sensing Jared's unease, started again, louder this time: "I shouldn't have run off. I panicked. I didn't… Shit!"

Then, in the span of seconds, Jensen grabbed his head, pulling him down and

… kissed him?

Jared could feel Jensen's full lips moving eagerly against his own, begging for entry. This wasn't what he had expected. At all.

Grabbing Jensen's waist, he pulled him closer and opened his mouth to let Jensen in. He was rewarded with a low little moan then their tongues met: warm, wet, perfect. Jensen tasted slightly of coffee and fruit - and to Jared's amusement also of lipstick - but that did not deter him from exploring Jensen's mouth with a content sigh.

It turned out Jensen kissed the same way he did everything else: concentrated, a mixture of adapting and taking control, always trying to make the most of what he got - it was literally breathtaking.

Jared pulled back, gazing at Jensen's flushed face. Jared probably didn't look much better. He softly caressed Jensen's cheek, marveling at the touch. He could feel a big smile spread over his face, while he watched Jensen mirroring his expression, his eyes crinkling as he happily looked back at Jared.

Softly caressing Jensen's cheek he commented: "Your lipstick is all messed up."

He let his thumb trail over Jensen's slightly swollen lips, carefully wiping away the lipstick, until Jensen playfully sucked at his thumb. Jared's cock twitched in response, the visual giving him plenty ideas of how to proceed from here…

Suddenly Theresa cleared her throat. "Guess, I should give you two some privacy, yeah?"

Startled, having completely forgotten about Theresa, Jared quickly tugged his thumb free and nodded sheepishly at her.

Theresa grinned back at him. "Just let me finish this." She turned on the dishwasher and left with a wink as she closed the kitchen door behind her.

Turning his attention back to the man in his arms, Jared drank in the sight of Jensen smiling happily up at _him_. He let their foreheads touch and whispered: "You know you could have had this yesterday?"

Jensen sighed: "I know that now. I'm sorry I panicked." His voice dropped to his usual low rumbling. "Even though it's not like you couldn't have taken the first step, too."

"Honestly, I never dared to hope you were anything but straight."

"And this weekend didn't clue you in at all?" Jensen laughed.

"If anything, it drove me completely nuts. The constant touching and teasing… Walking around half hard stops being fun after a while, you know?"

"I'm not going to apologize, dude. Besides, how do you think I felt?" Jensen mumbled, happily nibbling on Jared's bottom lip.

Nuzzling Jensen's ear, Jared whispered: "I still think you should find a way to make it up to me."

"Mmm, maybe I'll think of something." Jensen kissed a path down Jared's neck, while his fingers began to unbutton Jared's shirt.

"Wait a second," Jared moaned and extracted himself briefly to go and lock the door. Better to be safe than sorry.

"Joe and the others are out, taking a walk," Jensen grinned. "And I guess Theresa will not come back for quite a while." He threaded his fingers back into Jared's hair.

Cupping Jensen's face with his hands, Jared closed the short distance, kissing Jensen deeply, meanwhile pushing him slowly but surely back against the kitchen counter. Suddenly Jensen pulled his mouth away, looking at him funnily, and proceeded to spit a chewing gum into his hand.

Jared stared at it stupidly, until he realized it was actually _his_. He tended to forget about them. Sandy had complained about his habit to eat them every time he was nervous as well. He sheepishly looked at Jensen.

"Dude, this might be one of the few things I don't want you to share with me," Jensen said with one raised eyebrow, sticking the gum pointedly onto the kitchen counter next to him.

"Sorry? Maybe it's my turn to make it up to you?"

Jensen cocked his head, pulled Jared's face to him and mumbled a "Maybe" onto his lips.

Moving them both back the last few inches, until Jensen's back finally touched the kitchen counter, Jared quickly swept away the stuff lying around with his arm, not really caring if some silverware was hitting the floor, and lifted Jensen up, setting him down on the surface, without ever letting go of Jensen's mouth.

Carefully, Jensen pushed him away. "You know, I'm not really a girl, dude," Jensen huffed somewhere between irritated and amused.

Jared closed in again, and licked a wet path along Jensen's jaw line, but gave up quickly, once he tasted nothing but make-up. Skipping the last inch, he whispered into Jensen's ear. "Yeah, you don't mind if I make sure of that myself, do you?" His hands slowly pushed Jensen's red dress up, caressing the outside of his thighs, trailing slowly upwards.

Jensen's breath hitched, and he forcefully grabbed Jared's jaw, pulling him into another open-mouthed kiss.

"Lift up," Jared asked and felt Jensen acquiescently support himself on his hands and move his hips upwards. Taking his chance, Jared grasped the dark red lace panties and pulling them all the way down, enjoying Jensen helplessly biting down on a moan. Realizing there _still_ was a bulging flesh colored thong to go, he inquired: "Uhh, you want to do that one yourself? I really don't want to break the equipment before we've even really started."

Jensen took a hold of the thin material and carefully wriggled out of it. When his fully engorged cock sprang free, he let out a deep sigh of relief.

Staring at Jensen's erection, Jared felt his own straining against his jeans in response. Licking his lips in anticipation, he first slipped off Jensen's ballet slippers, then pulled the thong completely down and put it on the counter next to the red panties. Spreading Jensen's legs to step in between, he carefully grasped Jensen's hard cock, enjoying the soft moaning sounds Jensen made. He slowly lowered his head to lick his prize from base to top, enjoying the mixed taste of salt, bitterness and Jensen.

Jensen bucked upwards, groaning once Jared started applying more pressure with both hand and mouth. Not wanting to choke on cock, Jared put his hands on Jensen's hips, holding him down, while he slowly lowered his mouth over Jensen's dick, sucking him in. Enjoying Jensen's low moan, he moved upwards again, letting his tongue circle around the swollen head, before going down again.

One of Jensen's hands found its way into Jared's hair, motioning him to speed up his rhythm, which he happily complied with. He watched Jensen's back arching up, listened to Jensen's breathing hitch more and more. Then Jensen tried pulling Jared's head off of him, indicating that he was about to come. Jared ignored the tugging, but put his tongue to work on that sensitive spot under the head of Jensen's dick, while he gripped it with one hand and started stroking a quick hard rhythm, until Jensen came with a loud groan into his mouth.

Jared swallowed, looked up and happily used his hand to milk Jensen through the aftershocks, drinking in Jensen's sounds and expressions.

Afterwards Jensen got a hold of Jared's neck and pulled himself up, bringing their faces close to kiss him gratefully. He just was about to open Jared's belt buckle, when they heard the muted sound of the front door opening, soon followed by the voice of Alex, talking animatedly.

"Shit!" Jensen shoved Jared back and sprang down from the counter, straightening his dress. He grabbed the panties lying next to him, eyeing them for a second, but then just pushed them into Jared's hand. "Bag them." Jared dutifully put them into his jeans pocket, while Jensen slipped into his shoes and fiddled with his long blond strands, trying to make them less disheveled, a slightly panicked look on his face.

Jensen's panic had one good side-effect though: His own erection was wilting quickly. "Hey," he grabbed Jensen's hand to calm him down. "You look okay."

The voices outside were coming closer.

"Umm, but _you_ don't." Reaching up, Jensen wiped Jared's lips free of the last traces of lipstick and pulled his shirt back down over his pants.

Remembering that the door was still locked, Jared hastened to open it - not a second too late. Alex just turned around the corner, followed by Ron, Joe and Elaine.

"Jared! Finally awake, I see? Did Jenny wear you out last night?" Alex teased.

Jared knew a direct approach often worked best with Alex to end unwanted conversations. "Yes, sure, we had wild hot sex on the couch just five seconds after you finally dragged your ass to bed. Sorry you missed the show, dude."

Noticing out of the corner of his eyes Jensen's fidgeting, he realized that Jensen was standing there without any panties under his skirt - meaning, no way to hide any kind of downstairs reaction. Which unfortunately revived his _own_ erection in two seconds flat. _Damn._ Jared tried to move unobtrusively behind of the chairs standing around the big kitchen table - and Jensen followed suit, moving halfway behind Jared.

"What about some brunch, before we all have to leave, boys?" Elle piped up.

Jared was too busy concentrating his thoughts on dead rats, bloody entrails and Michael Jackson to react in any kind of way, but next to him Jensen replied kind of nervously "Yes, good idea! I'm going to get Theresa," and quickly squeezed past the others to escape the kitchen.

Theresa turned up soon after, when the rest of them were already busy setting the table. Jensen came back a good few minutes later, stealing a quick kiss from Jared, grinning happily from ear to ear. Jared noticed that Jensen's make-up was freshened up, and from the looks he stole at Jensen's midsection, he concluded that Jensen probably had put on some underwear again.

Brunch itself was pretty uneventful until Joe accidentally found Jared's chewing gum sticking to the underside of his plate.

+++

Soon after they had finished their last meal together, Alex decided to leave as he still had the long road trip home to Seattle in front of him. They followed him to his Mercedes, saying their goodbyes. Jensen got an extra-long hug, which Jared watched with raised eyebrows and Jensen answered over Alex's shoulder with an irritated eye roll.

"Alex! That's enough," Jared called.

"You can't blame me for trying," Alex commented amused, letting go of Jensen.

"You better be careful. As you've said yourself: She's quite a handful, dude." Jared said, giving him a short manly hug, combined with a pat on the back.

Theresa snickered next to them, exchanging an amused look with Jensen.

Afterwards the rest of them went back into the house, making sure that everything was in order for the final inspection by the caretaker. When the rooms looked decent enough, Jared and Jensen helped the others carry their bags out to the car.

After they had stored away the stuff and closed their trunk, Ron and Elaine were the first to administer a short but warm round of hugs. Next, Theresa came up, hugging Jensen long and hard, kissing him on the cheek; then followed Jared who couldn't resist lifting her up and hugging her tight. He was going to miss her.

In the meantime, Joe had said his goodbyes to Jensen and was now coming over, offering a hug, which Jared accepted with smile.

"By the way, I hope next year you'll leave Jen at home and bring Jensen," Joe said quietly under his breath when they let go of each other.

Jared stared dumbfounded at Joe's amused expression. Obviously noticing Jared's utter astonishment, Joe proceeded to give him a friendly slap on the back for reassurance. Jared though just couldn't really bring himself to react, his brain was still trying to process the fact that Joe _knew_. Marginally, he realized that Jensen stared at him worriedly - but he was not able do anything beyond watching Joe and the others getting into the car and driving away. Most of Jared's brain functions were still caught up in a loop of _Damn!_, _Fuck!_ and _Oh My God!_

Jensen stepped beside him, resting his hand on his back. "Jay?"

"Joe knows," Jared whispered, hardly keeping an oncoming panic attack at bay.

Jensen just smiled reassuringly. "I thought so. Theresa figured it out too, by the way."

"WHAT?" Jared's head snapped around, facing Jensen.

"We had a long conversation this morning and she kind of let slip that she knew I was not a girl. Ironically, she was really surprised, once I explained everything to her and told her we were not really together. Anyway, she told me we were just being blind idiots - and I kind of had to agree there. "

"So, she's the reason you decided to kiss me for real this time?"

"Yeah, that, and the fact that you looked like you were about to either pee your pants or run for the hills."

"Did not."

"Did too. Hey, it's okay." He soothingly touched Jared's chest with his flat hand. "This weekend was kind of overwhelming in many ways."

Jared put his hand above Jensen's. "But worth it."

"Glad, you agree." Jensen leaned closer and kissed him slowly.

Jared pulled back and rubbed his face with his hand. The fact that Theresa and Joe knew was still sinking in. "What if they tell the others? I will never be able to attend our meetings again! Can you imagine the conversations they all will want to have?" Jared laughed hysterically.

"Relax, Jay. Obviously they did not mind. Otherwise they would have reacted quite differently. Look at it this way: You have some amazing friends, who obviously care for you. And Theresa and Joe didn't exactly strike me as the gossipy type. Maybe you should simply call them tonight or tomorrow, and explain your side of the story. I'm sure they'll understand."

Jared nodded slowly. It was probably going to be a weird conversation, but they were his friends, and he sure owed them.

"As for Ron and Elaine, I have no clue what they thought, but I'm pretty sure the one who didn't realize anything was Alex. He kept staring at my boobs, man. And I'm pretty sure he was hitting on me that one time we were alone in the kitchen." Jensen sighed, slightly annoyed.

Jared laughed. "That's Alex for you. Don't take it too seriously. Did I mention that he told me to marry you?"

"What?" Jensen asked surprised, then started snickering.

"He's obviously quite the fangirl. Oh, and apparently he would prefer it, if you were to wax your eyebrows."

Jensen laughed out laud. "No way. There are few things I wouldn't even do for _you_."

"So, anything else you think I should know, while we're at it?"

Jensen hesitated, suddenly looking all shy.

"Jensen?" Jared asked worriedly.

Jensen hemmed and hawed some more, but did not speak.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me," Jared tried for reassuring, but probably failed completely, because he was inwardly bracing himself for the next catastrophe.

Jensen looked at the floor, shuffling his feet. "Jared, I… I'm not really a girl."

"Oh, you BASTARD!"

Jared tried grabbing Jensen's arm, but the little fucker had already turned and was running for the house, his dress flattering behind him.

"Oh just wait 'til I get my hands on you, ASSHOLE!" He cried out, watching Jensen cross the threshold and disappear into the house. Jared walked towards the door, grumbling under his breath. Once he entered the cabin, he could neither see nor hear Jensen. He stopped to listen, but everything was quiet. He quickly checked the kitchen, the living room, their bedroom. No Jensen in sight.

"JENSEN? YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER! LAST TIME I CHECKED, YOU WERE STILL RIDING HOME WITH ME, ASSHAT!"

No answer. He was on his way to the stairs when he noticed that the backdoor was slightly ajar. Stepping out into the backyard, Jared found a trail of distinctly feminine clothing leading up to the hot tub, and the blond wig hanging over a garden chair.

And there Jensen sat in the tub: Arm's braced on the edge, water glistening on his face and in his short dark hair, smiling like the cat that ate the canary. "Took you long enough!" he called out.

Jared noticed that Jensen's make-up was mostly gone, except for some traces of eyeliner and mascara around his eyes. While he climbed up the short stairway leading up onto the pedestal that held the tub, his anger dissipated into burning arousal, when he realized that Jensen must be nearly if not entirely naked.

"Care to join me? If you actually want to have sex with me not looking all girly, that is?" Jensen asked, mischief in his voice.

Jared frowned. "I don't know. Maybe you could at least put the wig and the bra back on?" he smirked, opening a few buttons and pulling his shirt over his head.

"For this you'll be totally the first one to bottom, dude," Jensen pouted.

Jared snorted, tousling Jensen's wet hair. "Fine with me, Jen. _Absolutely_ fine." He leaned down, placing a short kiss on Jensen's wet lips. Jensen smiled back, looking up at him adoringly, his eyes crinkling and Jared was sure he had never seen anything more beautiful.

He kicked off his flip-flops and stepped out of his jeans, hesitating when he reached his boxer shorts.

"Lose your underwear, dude. I heard you're kinda good at that."

"Just wait until _your_ baggage gets lost, dude."

Pushing his shorts down, he revealed his half-erect cock, while he could feel Jensen watching him hungrily.

"I don't know there might be an advantage to going commando." Jensen leered.

"Yeah. _Maybe_," Jared agreed with a grin.

Walking carefully down the smallish steps into the tub, he sank into the water, pulling Jensen close - not that he was met with much resistance. "You know you're still wearing your earrings?" He said with a smirk.

Embarrassed, Jensen grabbed his ear. "Damn, after a while you just forget about them."

Pushing his hand away gently, Jared carefully pulled the earring off and nuzzled Jensen's neck, then repeated the motion on the other side, before putting them on the upper stair above the water. Jensen wound his arms around Jared's neck, kissing him deeply, making him groan under the onslaught of hot, completely naked Jensen wrapped around him.

"MISTER PADALECKI? HELLO?" Somebody called from farther away, sounding like he still was in the house.

They instantly froze. "Shit, the _caretaker_!" Jared hung his head. He had completely forgotten about the guy.

"What the fuck?" Jensen cursed. "What is it with people constantly interrupting us?"

"Hell, if I know. I WILL BE WITH YOU SHORTLY, MISTER OLIVER! PLEASE BE SO KIND AND WAIT IN THE KITCHEN FOR ME." He looked at Jensen. "Stay here and keep your head down. I'll try to buy us some more time."

Jensen sunk back into the water pouting, tempting Jared very much to kiss him senseless, but this was really not the time for it. He climbed out, grabbing his jeans and tried to ignore the way the fabric clung uncomfortably to his wet skin. He slipped his shirt back on, stepped into his flip-flops and finally tossed Jensen's dress over the blond wig, because he _so_ did not want to have _that_ conversation with the caretaker. It would be awful enough to explain their little romp in the tub.

+++

When Jared returned, Jensen still sat where he had left him, fiddling with his earrings, obviously bored out of his mind.

"Mission accomplished!" Jared said with a wide grin.

Jensen looked up, smiling. "Hey! I was starting to think you had forgotten about me."

"Sorry, he wasn't exactly happy, once I explained to him that he had to come back in two hours." Jared kicked his flip-flops away then shed his shirt. "But fortunately he wasn't adverse to bribery." He wriggled his eyebrows.

"You paid money to have sex with me? Now, I feel kind of dirty," Jensen joked, his eyes glued to Jared's naked torso, obviously enjoying the show. "Was I at least expensive?"

Jared smirked. "Very, but I'm 100 percent sure that you'll be worth every penny." He peeled off his jeans and climbed into the tub to sink into Jensen's open arms.

"You sure you want to go through with this?" Jensen asked.

"You're not having second thoughts about this now, do you?"

"No, it's just, considering our track record, I wouldn't be surprised if Alex suddenly came back, because he forgot his electric shaver or something."

"Well, no one's keeping him from simply going upstairs and getting it. I, for one, am not accepting any more interruptions." He kissed Jensen, savoring the moment when Jensen opened his mouth to let him in deeper. He let his hand's glide over Jensen's bare chest, enjoying the feel of hard muscle under the wet skin. He could feel his cock brushing up against Jensen's stomach, and in search for more friction he started a slow rocking motion.

Jensen suddenly froze. "Did you hear that?"

Frowning, Jared pulled back and asked: "What?"

"You really didn't hear it?"

Jared shook his head, not knowing what Jensen was taking about.

"Listen…. It's Alex. Asking for his electric shaver." Jensen smirked.

But only until Jared grabbed his head and dunked him under water. Maybe that would teach Jensen something about the proper timing for a joke.

++  


**TUESDAY evening**

They lay on Jared's bed, both sweaty and very much naked. Jared felt a bit sore, but otherwise happy, fully enjoying the aftermath of their first real lovemaking, keeping Jensen cuddled to his side.

"…and then Alex complemented me on my beautiful hair, man."

Jared snickered.

"And I so wanted to take the damn itchy wig off and hand it to him, saying 'You can have it, dude.' Can you imagine his face?"

Laughing out loud, Jared agreed that Alex' reaction sure would have been priceless. "So, what will you do with all the stuff you borrowed? The falsies and wig?"

"I'll have to give them back tomorrow. I'm already a day late as it is. But I'm hoping that Jeannie will understand when I tell her that I was otherwise occupied with a certain special someone." Jensen's fingers slowly drifted over Jared's bare chest.

Jared smiled. "Too bad. I really kind of got used to seeing you in a dress. I wouldn't have minded to properly say goodbye to my girlfriend," Jared winked.

Shaking his head in amusement, Jensen said: "Kinky, Padalecki."

Jensen kissed him gently, then nipped his way towards Jared's ear, whispering: "If you're really nice, maybe I will get _that_ schoolgirl outfit for your birthday."

"I'm _always_ nice," Jared mumbled, nuzzling Jensen's neck. "By the way I think I still owe you a certain jersey…" he trailed off, waiting for Jensen's reaction.

Jensen pulled back and looked at Jared, smiling. "Keep it. It's not like I really did this for the shirt."

"Really?" Jared smiled lazily.

"Yeah, believe me; I got exactly what I wanted." He placed his hand possessively on Jared's chest.

Jared laughed, kissing Jensen slowly. "But maybe I _want_ you to have it? See, I already have a wonderful replacement." Trying to suppress his grin, he let go of Jensen, reached under the bed and pulled up the picture frame, he had put together this morning.

"You have to be fucking kidding me!" Jensen cried out, his eyes widening after he took one look at his dark red lace panties, framed on a black backcloth.

"I don't know, I think it will be quite the eye catcher," Jared hiccupped and collapsed into laughter - until he was shut up by Jensen's lips.

the end

  


Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> | Additional Notes |
> 
> This story almost didn't see the light of day. Because c'mon, fandom isn't exactly fond of cross-dressing stories. Probably even less than of mpreg *g*
> 
> So when I started this, I wrote it purely for myself. Then it grew and grew and grew and in a bout of insanity I showed the prologue to astri13, fully expecting nothing but, you know, "Ewww". Surprisingly she liked it - and still did so once she received the whole damn thing two months later. So if you enjoyed this, it's all thanks to her.
> 
> I'm not even really sure where this idea came from. I think it started a long time ago when I saw Jensen literally referred to as Jared's girlfriend at least three times in one week. I also wanted to try my hands at comedy for once and together these things became this big "What if" that I carried around in my head to amuse myself whenever I was bored.
> 
> Funnily, the first scene I wrote down didn't even involve Jensen. It was the little scene where Theresa points out that Jared and 'Jen' are very much in love and Jared is all bitter, still believing that nothing is what it seems to be.
> 
> Then I wrote absolutely nothing for at least half year. (And that's why I always say I'm not a writer *g*) Until I sat down again back in April and started writing part of the club scene, the beginnings of Jensen dozing off in Jared's arms, Jared meeting 'Jen' for the first time. From then on the thing developed a life of its own and became the longest - and for me - the most amusing thing I've ever written.
> 
> I have to admit this story went through a second phase where I really pondered to let it rot on my hard drive. Remember the "Ewww"? *g*
> 
> Because the first reaction of almost all the people I conned into betaing this thing? Yeah, it pretty much can be summarized with "SQUICK!!!!!!1! I don't read cross-dressing. Ever!" Interestingly, I also received an additional "I don't read even Jsquared!" and an "I don't even like crack!"
> 
> Even so, to my utter surprise, all of them finished the whole thing and still are on speaking terms with me *g* The majority seemed to enjoy the story anyway (or maybe they were just too polite to say otherwise ; ) and the none-J² girl has been successfully assimilated by now (Gotcha!). Though the anti-crack girl is still anti-crack *g*
> 
> Anyway, I again wanted to give a quick thank you to my betas (astri13, mareen, lovis, tmz_cori, gwendolen and last but not least miss_cinnamon), because each and every one of you amazing girls had an eye for a different set of mistakes. It turned out that the whole "You see only what you want to see" proves to be even more true for written words ; ) I'm not sure if you'll ever read the finished thing again (I guess not *g*), but be assured I used 98% of the stuff you pointed out. This story would have been much worse without your help. I owe you one. Probably even more so because of the "Eww" part ; )


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